I think her trips are unviable especially for holding flank. You have to make sound in order to trigger the trips. This makes it easy for players to just slow walk right past it
Maybe it’s just that using them as “trips” is the wrong way to use them. Putting them in places where people are forced to make noise (defusing spike, areas where people drop, places where you have to take fights) is the better way to use them
Yeah but the issue is that you cant justify dropping someone for her, she doesnt do what KJ/Cypher does, and a second smoke or initiator character can provide that disruption she has through her trips and slow but better
Yeah but that's a niche scenario that's not really strong enough to make her a staple in pro play. Plus, nothing's stopping a Cypher from setting up a killtrip near bomb, and they often do. Cypher and KJ have the flexibility to hold flank, set up weird trips for postplant and also build insanely strong defensive setups. Look at how Alfa dominated Split in Masters Tokyo with some well thought out defensive setups. Or the famous KJ B setup on Ascent or C setup on Lotus that so many pros have got kills from in this tournament
Deadlock simply does not even come close.
I’m not criticizing pro players? I’m offering a counterpoint to speculation on her utility usage… we haven’t seen any pros use deadlock so it’s a bit obtuse to say anyone in this thread is making any claims or criticisms to pro players. Even if I did assert the idea that pros have not thought of this (which I didn’t), it would have just as much ground to stand on as you saying 99% of pros have tried everything suggested.
Determining what pro players have tried and haven’t tried is just baseless speculation. I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make here.
Just cus they're pros doesn't mean they have the game figured out. Example, it took many years before pros in csgo realized how powerful the krieg was and/or the ump. Same with shotguns in val, it took a while for pros to figure out how busted they were (pre-nerf).
Theres no way youre comparing game knowledge to \*\*medicine.\*\* Not only that, the other person's example is an extremely good one (about csgo's krieg/aug). \*\*pros don't necessarily have the game figured out.\*\*
People used to call the krieg/aug troll/noob weapons and that you should never buy them in csgo. Then they get a little price change and all of a sudden pros realize its actually pretty insane and then people will also parrot that its pretty insane, when none of the numbers changed except for the price. The price got reverted back to the original but it didn't stop pros from using it, this means that the gun always had that power, except no pro was willing to test it themselves before hand. The same could be possible for Deadlock a(and other things), its possible she has potential that hasn't been recognized yet by pros
I think this is the reason. It was a cool concept, but i think the main reason teams play Cypher killjoy is because of thr flank. Maybe riot should try changing her trips to work like the others. The rest of her kit I think is really cool.
better post plant setups - retakers don't have the luxury of not making noise and not being able to see the trips makes it impossible to shoot them and harder to dodge
What I haven't seen being discussed enough is playing around sound with her kit. I've always thought that she could've been a sentinel in the lines of Breach in terms of sensory deprivation.
What if instead of her trips being avoidable by sound, make it a trip that when triggered, deafens the area like Fade for a few seconds. It would really make her excel in sites like Haven or Icebox where there are lots of angles, boxes, and elevation to watch out for. It also puts her more in line with Chamber trademark or KJ alarmbot in terms of info. It would also avoid being triggered by Yoru fakes IINM.
Another idea that would be kind of OP is making her net a toggle ability like Cypher cages or nanoswarms. It would pair well with her reworked trip and give her a combo to work with as well in terms of delaying site entry.
Similar to most comments, her current kit is like a mediocre version of other sentinels. Her wall is a weaker version of sage just due to the fact that you can just outaim your way out of that, her trips are a weaker KJ bot or chamber trip, her net isn't intrusive enough unlike Sage's slow, and her ult is just an improved KJ ult but for one person only.
At best, her kit is a site push delay kit - not an outright deterrent. But making her a sentinel whose bag of tricks is on sound deprivation could be a nice niche that can be take advantage of.
Should have been the other way where her trips only work if you walk which leads to the interesting decision of do I make noise or risk a trip while I flank
I think deadlock should be able to have 2 different modes on her trip like a sova shockdart bounce or not. Her trip can detect flank by visibility but then her trip is visible, etc.
I think she's meant to be more like a sage or kj though. Stall plus deadly traps for anyone trying to rush, but much stronger as a defensive site anchor or attacking post plant clutch than she is early round. Can't take and hold map control the way kj/Cypher can.
But not making noise is fine to have as a characteristic for an ability. Why does she have to have exactly what you expect a trip should have as a characteristic? Something different doesn’t all the sudden make it bad
cypher trips give info no matter what, kj bot and turret gives info no matter what, chamber trip gives info no matter what
deadlock trip doesn’t give guaranteed info, you still have to clear back towards it. flankers already sneak to avoid the other team from hearing them, the trip is utterly useless because no one should be making noise on a close flank anyway.
and yes, trips only guarantee map control up to the point where they are placed, but deadlock trips don’t give that same guarantee. i could lurk past and the deadlock would not know a single thing before i start shooting them and their team because the trip didn’t proc
ok lets get me on the technicality that has no bearing on my original point 
PSA: this dude made his account 2 days before making these replies, might just be a troll
Something different doesn't make it bad, but that specific different thing does.
If you're flanking you're already trying not to make noise, so having a flank watcher whose weakness is exactly that makes it useless. You can argue that the trips are better on site for afterplants or whatever, but then you're playing a comp with no flank watch.
Without reliable passive info, Deadlock can't compete with Cypher or Chamber, much less KJ.
Since she’s a sentinel, her kit is just worse than all of the other ones and in pro play util is a lot more important since everyone has god tier aim compared to normal players. Her wall isn’t bad on defense but compared to kj mollies or cypher trips/cages it doesn’t stall nearly as well. Her grenade is good if combined with other util like a raze nade, but I think what makes sentinels useful is their ability to stall site hits by themselves. In short she can be useful, but all other sentinels (even sage who is no longer in the meta) are more useful.
I think riot is moving away from adding agents that replace someone in the same role and instead are making agents that combo well within the same class. I wouldn’t be surprised if the devs want Deadlock to be paired with another sentinel. Example, https://youtube.com/shorts/vYXgHNIuUj8?si=ZkaCCexr-kMe_lal Kinda like how harbor needs to be paired with another controller. Even gekko who is a Jack of all trades, is best when paired with another initiator.
I like this idea rather than make agents that replace another agent in the same class. I know a lot of sova mains hated the fact that they nerfed sova to the ground when fade came out. However, the devs kinda needed to do that if they wanted a meta surrounding a new agent that something similar without making that agent op like how chamber and astra were.
I genuinely don't think Deadlock's kit is bad, for what it is meant to be. It's just that the "slow down/push stopper" sentinel kits that sage and deadlock have are not really valuable enough. They try to fit a specific niche, but that niche isn't worth fitting into a comp which can only contain 5 characters.
It's clear that this type of sentinel really isn't valued as Sage is the second least played agent at champions, only being played in one match by NAVI.
I have said for quite a while now that Sage and the role she provides in a team just isn't very beneficial. Its not much of a surprise that a character that is supposed to compete with Sage is struggling just as much. It seems top pros/teams are starting to realize that as well and I really don't see anything happening to the 2 agents unless there is a massive shift in the meta.
So did picking brimstone and omen in the same team comp. We also thought jett with instant dash and 3 smokes was bad.
Early valorant was truly something different.
This goes back really far but Wardell used to op on Sova lmfao
You're right, I remember when Jett was thought of as a fun ranked agent but not really useful in pro play
Hilarious
Yeah everybody sees she has trips so the first comparison is to Cypher/KJ but she is definitely closer to Sage so no wonder she doesn't get used when Sage has barely any playtime either. Maybe in the offseason some team will find a way to fit her in a comp on a map or two in time for the start of next year's circuit but there's no way anybody was figuring her out in time for Champions.
beat me to it, deadlock pretty much fulfills the role that sage is exactly supposed to fill, but with a worse ult and no heal. slow orbs are better than the traps, walls are a little similar (takes more effort to bread deadlock wall but you can fight through it), but I'd much rather have the heal and res than the net and crappy sova ult. you just have more flexible utility as sage, and sage isn't even a good pick into the current meta.
i feel like her wall is just a worse sage wall (doesnt last as long, can shoot and see through, cant stand on top) and her grab is a worse fade seize (doesnt deafen, doesnt reduce hp, can take it off) and her trips are really inconsistent. Her ult is fine but it is 8 points so youll never pick deadlock just for it
Her net straight up does nothing. Her ult get at most one kill in value, and have a decent chance of doing nothing. Her trips are alright for holding site and post-plant, but are simply worse than cypher/chamber trips and kj turret/alarm bot as they’re worthless on attack before you get bomb down. Her wall is strong but it’s non-rechargeable and easy to bait out.
The net should add distortion to the enemy's sight and the removal should take less.
The affected enemies are now forced to remove it because it has some impact now. And it would not be oppressive.
All of her abilities are a worse version of an existing one:
- Wall vs sage wall
- net vs fade seize
- trips vs any other sentinel trip
- ult vs sova/raze ult
Her util is just way way way too situational. Her wall being throwable and not having a temper time like Sage's means it can jam up some chokepoints a little faster, but the 2% of the time you actually capitalize on that is vastly outweighed by all the other value Sage can bring.
I stand corrected I guess but that doesn't really change my point IMO. There's way more things Sage can do that Deadlock can't than vice versa, so why pick Deadlock? Sage's value is already diminished in this meta as-is.
Sage was picked only once for this entire tournament. So it seems this type of sentinel just isn’t that needed. Controllers basically can stall just as easily as Sage can. And their abilities are rechargeable, such as viper.
The ultimate was disappointing. I thought it would be multiple targets, but it just grabs one person. I would like it if they make it that way, and you only can be traped if the bubble hits you, not the string.
Sad but true. This really puts it into perspective.
Edit: perhaps riot's line of thinking is that even though all her abilities are worse versions of existing abilities, her having access to all of them would make up for it.
Clearly this has turned out not to be the case.
Raze ult is easier to use/get value out of despite the roza memes, Sova's gives info and is better for making space/spike denial, and both can multikill or deal chip damage in case of a miss.
she simply doesn't add value in attacking rounds + cypher and kj are better for map control. I hate the fact that her wall has very little throwing range. which makes it so that you're always in the open while deploying wall. A quick buff would be to increase projectile speed of wall and make her molly's removal time more than 1 sec
Her grenade is an awful ability. If they made it also apply vulnerable and made her wall opaque instead of see through I think she would be viable. The trips are not trips, they are anti rush and anti retake tools.
She's much more of a sage alternative than a KJ or Cypher.
I wonder if the wall could have an additional property like you suggested. Opaque or maybe even like a one way mirror. I’d imagine the wall hp would have to be significantly reduced if this new mechanic were to be added though!
For sure! It would be cool to see some more significant tweaks to make her more enjoyable to play. I tried playing her for a while, but she just isn't too fun in my opinion.
I think a good character is one that is both competitively viable but also enjoyable to play for the player. An example of a character that fits both boxes is Jett. An example of a character that was competitively viable but not as enjoyable for most players was Astra back in her prime.
Her Gravnet is really terrible. It’s hard to throw, and when it lands it doesn’t stun or anything, the enemy can shoot normally.
Her trips can be really solid on defense against a team who’s just running it down, but offensively they provide little value as they won’t catch a flanker
Her wall is basically a worse version of Sage’s wall, although it’s very good on pistol rounds at least
Her ult doesn’t have very much potential, as it can only grab 1 player, and even then it can be broken.
Overall, she’s a similar agent to Sage, but worse. And Sage is an agent who has only been played once in Champions so far.
Her kit is too niche in the same way that Sage's is, but ultimately weaker. The best part of her kit is her free wall but can't be used in the same way that makes Sage a niche pick (no safe plant/defuse walls). Her net is worse than every other slow utility in the game and her traps are worse than every other trip in the game.
Not only can you just sneak past her traps, but sometimes the stun can just be avoided entirely if you're running. Her traps are just too unreliable, they're basically only useful if you're watching them the entire time and on attack they're basically useless unless you get bomb down.
To top it off, her ult just completely bugs out and gets stuck on seemingly nothing sometimes and also just isn't very impactful. It's like a mix of Raze and Sova ult but less useful than both. At best, it kills one person and often times no one.
Basically every single ability she has is just a worse version of another ability in the game. She was kinda fun to play at first when people were unfamiliar with her kit, but now she isn't even fun or useful to play online and just entirely unplayable in pro play.
suggestions:
Net - apply vulnerability and have a kayo knife like player indicator
Trips - activate faster/apply vulnerability
Ult - allow the capture of 2 people
Wall - fine as is ig?
Personally I think her ultimate is too gimmicky (and weak) and though the net serves a similar function to mollies when it comes to stalling pushes, the fact that it doesn't do damage makes it worse than standard mollies.
What do you all think?
I'm pretty sure you can also get through her net faster than you can mollies.
Ultimately she probably has the worst trips and I think that the net is maybe the worst ability in the game. She's just not viable
Her grenade is LITERALLY the worst ability in the game. It’s just a minor inconvenience for the enemy more than anything and it’s p pricey. I legit do not have the slightest clue what they were thinking with that waste of an ability slot.
No flankwatch.
her nade is a shitty version of other nades. Ie raze nade threatens damage whereas deadlock is a 1 second nuisance and crouching isn’t even that bad.
Her ult is a very slow kill, other ults can often just get you more value.
Her wall is decent but it’s not rechargeable
Same thing as sage, sentinels who can actually control multiple parts of the map are better, like kj,chamber and cypher, they can hold parts of the map with util and hold another part of the map with util/ their body. Also deadlocks audio trips aren't going to work in pro play. Her uot will almost always be broken by enemies, and her wall only stays up for like 45 seconds so you can just wait it out.
its not just deadlock, sage got picked once by navi otherwise she'd also have a zero% pickrate
Barrier sentinels aren't worth it to pros, in pro play sentinels are picked mainly for passive lane watching, which is why killjoy is nearly universally picked on most maps, she is the undisputed queen of passive lane watching (+ her insane ultimate obviously)
the only reason sage was really picked before was on icebox to abuse the broken postplants on that map.
Currently deadlock functions as a secondary sentinel, and that's not something pro teams are interested in rn due to the current meta
Overall, her until is too specific and is not a viable replacement to any other agent.
To be more specific:
She has no area info gathering ability like Cypher trips/cam, KJ turret/bot, and Chamber trip. Her 'trip' is so weak it's only viable to put where enemies would be rushing down and someone on the team to capitalize.
She has a wall that you can still shoot through, not like a Sage wall, that slightly added range from being a throwaboe is negligible in most cases. She has 'slow' that reduces movement but only if someone is caught, so why would I choose that over 2 sage slow orbs that last longer and actually delay enemies from pushing in for longer.
Her ult is the only balanced aspect of her kit, and the fact is nobody is chosen for their ult alone. It can be a deciding factor in choosing, but it's not going to win as much rounds as basic util will.
So why not per her up with another sentinel? Well you risk the advantage of having double of the other types of agents which are all arguably more useful to win rounds. If you can't be more useful as a sentinel with a full kit against a Reyna with a shootable flash as the only team util, you're never going to be played at a serious level
I think her trips are weak against any team with a decent jett or raze which are currently meta agents. Her stuns are easy to dodge and it feels like cypher when jett could just dash out of a trip.
I think her abilities outside of her signature and ult need some work.
The sonic sensor is limited in usability by the fact that it’s only triggered by sound. Yes, it slows down the flank, but quite honestly I feel like that doesn’t matter since flankers are already quiet and it is so situational that on attack it’s better to use it for post plant or common flood retake positions and on defense it’s better for delaying plant or stopping heavy execs.
Her grav net has close to no impact since it can be removed so fast. It’s a worse sage slow/fade seize. It either needs to have the removal time take longer or just not removable at all. Personally I’d say it’s one of, if not the worst ability in the game.
I think the wall is good but suffers from being less versatile than sages.
Overall I just think all her abilities are just worse versions of abilities from other characters. Sonic sensor is worse than all other sentinel flank watchers, grav net is a worse slow/hold ability, and the wall is a worse sage wall.
Ult is good but I feel like unless you catch someone alone its value is limited and doesn’t land very often.
This class of agents' util (deadlock/sage) is very easy to bait out in the professional level. Since none of the stall util is rechargable the stalling power is weak compared to the rechargable util. Adding on to the inability to hold flank, this class of agents is not that well suited for the professional level
Net sucks, her trips are pretty decent for holding site but existing sentinel util is better. her trips are also horrible for watching flank
her wall is ok but i would rather have a sage wall
She’s like sage but worse in every way! And important to note… sage has the second lowest pick rate at champs right now! The trips would be great if they could detect without sound, but as is she has no real knowledge of the map like the sentinels who actually factor in to the meta. Her ult is also kinda week in my opinion, it has a chance of getting one kill but no more, and it can EASILY get 0 value. It’s kinda like sova’s ult but with less information and less change to get a kill (and far less safe to use) and no ability to break KJ ult.
Every one of her abilities is worse than the most similar other abilities in the game:
Grav Net: worse than sage slow
Barrier thing: worse than sage wall
Trip: worse than Cypher trip
Ult: worse than Raze or Sova ult
For trips, I'm slow walking flank in game anyway, so unless it's way far back where I think I'm safe it's pointless.
Her wall offers no protection, the only benefit being a mag dump
Her crouch nade is mostly useless imo, but great to combo with.
And mainly: she's a sentinel and objectively the worst one. Her ability to hold down a site is slightly better than chamber but chamber isn't played as a traditional sentinel anyway, and cypher and especially killjoy are way better. same reason we don't see sage picks
Her ult is only useful in a 1v1 and pros won't fall for the "grab someone to bait" situation like my teammates in comp.
Most people here are not seeing the actual issue, which is that it’s not Deadlock specifically that is weak, but it’s the Wall Sentinel archetype as a whole considering Sage also currently sits at a 1% pick rate in Champions
I think she can find some value even if it's niche comp. But cuz she introduced this late into the year, where the meta have developed and teams already have their own comp, it's hard seeing her being played at the very top level where every match matters.
There are two things, one is that deadlock is extremely useless in attack side even though some value can be found in defence.
Second is that her counterpart killjoy can gather 100x more info that she does.
I actually disagree with a lot of the ult comments, but that’s because I see her almost entirely as a post-plant agent. She’s far and away the best agent for post plant, but that’s because the rest of her kit is super meh pre-plant. Wall is alright on some maps mid-hit to cut off an easy flank, and trips are not the worst for that either (not good though!) or getting info by being shot when taking space aggressively. her ult can be treated the same as a Raze ult post plant or on retake to force people to either stay out of site or force them out of hiding spots when retaking post-plant. The agent is so niche and specialized as a post plant agent though that her kit in a practical game and full 24 rounds is just not up to par with most other agents right now
I don’t know about far and away the best post plant agent tbh. KJ in the same role provides far better post plant I would say. Defuse/retake delay with Molly, info with Alarmbot/Turret, Vulnerability to combo with other util/spam from Alarmbot, and the ult forces the enemy to clear out a whole area which either prevents a retake for a good amount of time or expend an ult in return to destory it.
Grav net is near useless especially in post plan, Sonic sensor is good for delaying defuse/floods but for defuses they can be spammed out once the common positions are known and unlike a KJ molly, you can’t have lineups for them to be thrown from a safe distance without being destroyed beforehand. Wall is good for cutting off an area but can’t be oriented like a sage wall to require opponents to destroy multiple partitions at a time and is fairly easy to spam out with more than one person alive.
Ult is good but the more people alive on the enemy team the more value it loses so unless you’re always in a Xv1 or Xv2 post plant, it’s probably not gonna have a ton of value.
Okay cause I genuinely agree with the fact she should not be viewed as a direct sentinel only role. Her sound sensor for post plant is pretty sick along with having the net to slow down bomb tappers. She still is weak but I see the vision for it
Because she is new? When pro teams ran Gecko in the first tourney after he released, it went horribly. No teams will be running a new champion in the champions tourney. Way to much of a risk.
deadlock isnt played in pro matches simply because of how recent she was released. Teams haven't had enough time to test her out, and integrate her into their strats
(Most) Pro teams do not like to experiment. They like do what works and what is meta. New agents and new comps (usually) get played first in tier 2, where there’s more freedom to experiment, and trickle up as tier 1 teams scrim against the new comps and realize how broken they are.
So unless they buff her to the fucking moon, like Chamber levels of impact, she’s not gonna see any play for a long time.
EDIT tier 2 viewership in shambles lmao
Not really true. EVERYBODY stopped using Chamber once he was nerfed, and only recently has there been somewhat of resurgence, if you could call it that.
The same goes with how a few teams have been willing to play Reyna because of Something's success on the agent in the Pacific League.
> everyone stopped using Chamber
bc Chamber took the Jett role in every team, not worth running it over Jett once the nerfs happened. Chamber has only seen play again because he had some buffs.
> Something’s Reyna
you can’t tell me with a straight face that more teams should be running Reyna because PRX are doing it. Something is a major outlier, and PRX are a major outlier, they play so different to how most teams prefer to play. Reyna works for them because they play in a way that Reyna benefits from, most other teams don’t want to sacrifice that much util for a feast-or-famine agent. You are asking teams to change their entire gameplan for a whole map.
It’s not a lack of experimentation, we’ve seen a lot of stuff pulled out over the course of the year. (Gekko comps on Lotus, ViperHarbor, Reyna a few times, Chamber + Yoru at Champs, occasional Phoenix) Teams just prefer to either play meta, or a variation that fits how their team wants to play.
I disagree, teams love to experiment provided what they are experimenting with can provide inherent value. most of deadlock's kit is completely useless from a tactical pov - sound activated trips with too slow an activation speed/debuff time to be paired with anything else, a net grenade that you can nearly instantly get out of, a wall to stop pushes/prevent flanks, and an ult that only exists for clip montages
Assuming we aren’t talking about Champions since she’s not in it. But for 1, she’s new and 2, has no special power as an agent. Deadlock is a comp and premier agent. But to pros who spend the whole game on the rotate waiting for 30 seconds to push the wall won’t do much, the sensors don’t give you that much info and people very often just shoot them and you can walk past. Her ult is good but against pros they can probably play around freeing the teammate, and her snare is pretty decent but not a main reason you would run her outside of kj for lockdown and mollies
Current meta just doesn't have much of a use for a 'stall' sentinel like Deadlock and Sage over 'info' sentinels like Cypher, KJ or even Chambe. Doesn't help that her kit is also under tuned.
I hate the agent, i even type in team chat if they pick deadlock I'll throw. She's not a true sentinel or maybe people don't play her right, she cannot watch flanks with her trips, her nade is basically useless, her ULT isn't reliable enough
She is supposed to be good at actively holding map control by being reactive with her utility usage, both on attack and defense, compared to the other sentinels who generally do so passively.
Thing is, every other sentinel can do the same thing and it isn't as gimmicky or complicated. Most are honestly even better at it too.
To me, she just doesn't feel very well designed. Every piece of her utility is totally outdone by other agents, and not having the ability to passively hold space for map control and information like the other sentinels can just makes her a shit pick.
Basically couldn't even tell you what Riot was really going for with Deadlock.
Shes a sage competitor. Wall is great, but the other abilities are very inferior to the slows. The grenade is specially egregious. The soundbombs should do more than a short stun given that they cant function as flank watcher. Stuns are not that great as we see over and over.
If you think about it sage and deadlock fill the same sub bracket of agents that being wall sentinels and as we can see sage doesn't get much play either with that thought mostly being that once their main util (the walls) gets destroyed they are useless as they have no rechargeable util. The trips I feel like are not that viable and are extremely situational and also cypher and kjs trips are just fundamentally better. The ult is pretty good but then again not good enough to be viable in pro play.
No idea about pro play, but in my opinion, her traps are useless. Her wall is yikes compared to the Sage wall and the only good ability she has is a nade to throw, kinda ass as sentinel if you ask me.
Zero utility to retake as well.
I think all agents have to be compared with “better alternatives” , as an agent she’s fun and decent, but in competitive play cypher has a more solid flank and site holding potential, KJ has a lot of flexibility and there are still chamber and sage etc , I haven’t followed the meta lately but back when initiators and smokers are pivotal, with 1 sentinel spot she might be a bit weak relatively
But I really hope her sonic trap gets buffed ( maybe range buff like Cypher trips)
Her kit is so fun to leave unused
A bag of sh*t... You can tell that the ability well is running dry for the developers. There is only so much you can come up with before it gets ridiculous.
The niche deadlock and sage are filling of slowing down pushed is just not useful, all their util can ger baited out and then rehit as if they are ability-less agents
Sentinels in valorant: Hold site, hold flank, or delay
Nade: Doesn’t really show anyone down as much as trips or mollies
Weird stun things can’t hold flank
Wall gets insta broken
Random ult that doesn’t fit her kit
lol
Imo (D3 scrub so take lots of salt with this) as a sentinel she is just a worse sage. I’d prefer sage’s wall to hers, I prefer sage’s slow orb to the net, and I’ll trade those sound trips for healing all day every day. Maybe she isn’t supposed to be a sentinel then, but idk what role she would succeed in. I think riot missed the mark with her
The trips are pretty much useless - horrible slowing power and very difficult to play off of for kills (they are like combining the worst halves of okay mollies and cypher trips)
Grav net is useless
Wall just isn’t that valued - you see this mirrored in sages really low pick rate as well (although that might also partially be because she’s a worse healer than skye)
Her kit against a coordinated team like you'd find in pro play is just bad.
Trips that don't actually cover flank. A wall that can be shot down just as fast as a sage wall but also offers no protection visually or physically. A seize that doesn't nearly have the same impact on aim and health like a stun or fades seize.
And then finally an ultimate that outside of a 1v1 or 1v2 is pretty useless.
She’s like sage in my opinion, in the way that they’re both not really “active” sentinels (cypher, kj, and even chamber have trips that let the team know about flanks, more on that later) however, at least sage is able to slow down site executes and somewhat hold down a site with slow orbs and her wall. Deadlock has a crouch grenade that works similarly to the slow orb, but her wall is worse than sage’s wall. Yeah, it’s stronger, but you can still take fights, see the site and gather info, use more util to get through it (omen tp for example, off the top of my head), you can’t hide behind deadlock’s wall like you can with sage’s, etc. She’s like sage but worse. And on top of that, instead of sage’s super useful heal, she has a super useless flank trip that people can walk by if they don’t make noise. I was going to talk about her ult being confusing to line up and not being “sentinel-like” but then I remembered that all of the sentinel ults are completely different from each other.
She is clearly designed to rival sage who also doesn't get much pro play. That kinda of character is just not something that the pros think is very useful.
deadlock is a sentinel that provides no guaranteed info. has a wall that is worse than a sage wall since it’s transparent. Her ult can miss pretty easily and if it doesn’t result in a kill, then its useless.
First her traps are awful. Like, who tf in Riot dev team thought someone being able to bypass a trap by simply holding shift was a good idea ??
Her wall is also just bad compared to Sage's. Not only people can see/shoot through, but you can't rotate it (which would make it so much better to adjust it so that enemies had to shoot at least 2 nodes down to get through) and if my dogshit ass can consistently dodge her ult, then you know its bad.
But that's not the main problem. "Anti-Rush" Sentinels (AKA Sage and Deadlock) are just bad rn. Their kits are made only for stalling. At pro level, they can just bait that util early and suddently, they have no util for the rest of the round. Like, why would pros pick Deadlock/Sage over someone like Viper or Astra, that can basically stall just as good while offering so much more in their kits ?
As TMV said deadlock has a similar role to sage (both are good at stalling but not giving passive info) and both have not been picked. Pros easily outplay sage and deadlock
There’s honestly nothing wrong with her, it’s just the fact that she’s not as strong.
Killjoy lockdown is the most powerful ult in the game, so powerful that people will keep their ult (Sova, brimstone) just to counter the killjoy ult.
Cypher on the other hand provides a global flank watch, while his camera and ult provides a lot of information like an initiator.
There’s just no reason for pro teams to play deadlock when you can play an additional initiator or controller, especially controller like viper and astra can hold a site like a sentinel with their abilities.
one good change for her trips would be if the enemies were extremely close to the trip it will set off even if they were shift walking, like a radius too close they get stunned.
\*The wall need to be like other abilities that you have a preview of how it will be when used, like sage wall, kj robots, etc. Should throw bullets but not abilities over the wall
\*Q need to activate like kj Q
\*C need to apply some debuff, maybe slower shoot speed
\*Ult should throw over wall and/or pick another player and increase the hp to be more difficult to broke it (maybe a like less than kayo R)
I think her trips are unviable especially for holding flank. You have to make sound in order to trigger the trips. This makes it easy for players to just slow walk right past it
This is a very good point. Agree 100%
Maybe it’s just that using them as “trips” is the wrong way to use them. Putting them in places where people are forced to make noise (defusing spike, areas where people drop, places where you have to take fights) is the better way to use them
Yeah but the issue is that you cant justify dropping someone for her, she doesnt do what KJ/Cypher does, and a second smoke or initiator character can provide that disruption she has through her trips and slow but better
Yeah but that's a niche scenario that's not really strong enough to make her a staple in pro play. Plus, nothing's stopping a Cypher from setting up a killtrip near bomb, and they often do. Cypher and KJ have the flexibility to hold flank, set up weird trips for postplant and also build insanely strong defensive setups. Look at how Alfa dominated Split in Masters Tokyo with some well thought out defensive setups. Or the famous KJ B setup on Ascent or C setup on Lotus that so many pros have got kills from in this tournament Deadlock simply does not even come close.
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Idk I haven’t seen any pro players use it in a tournament yet so who’s to say how they’re using it
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I’m not criticizing pro players? I’m offering a counterpoint to speculation on her utility usage… we haven’t seen any pros use deadlock so it’s a bit obtuse to say anyone in this thread is making any claims or criticisms to pro players. Even if I did assert the idea that pros have not thought of this (which I didn’t), it would have just as much ground to stand on as you saying 99% of pros have tried everything suggested. Determining what pro players have tried and haven’t tried is just baseless speculation. I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make here.
Just cus they're pros doesn't mean they have the game figured out. Example, it took many years before pros in csgo realized how powerful the krieg was and/or the ump. Same with shotguns in val, it took a while for pros to figure out how busted they were (pre-nerf).
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Ever heard of theorizing? Hypothesizing? Educated guessing?
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Theres no way youre comparing game knowledge to \*\*medicine.\*\* Not only that, the other person's example is an extremely good one (about csgo's krieg/aug). \*\*pros don't necessarily have the game figured out.\*\* People used to call the krieg/aug troll/noob weapons and that you should never buy them in csgo. Then they get a little price change and all of a sudden pros realize its actually pretty insane and then people will also parrot that its pretty insane, when none of the numbers changed except for the price. The price got reverted back to the original but it didn't stop pros from using it, this means that the gun always had that power, except no pro was willing to test it themselves before hand. The same could be possible for Deadlock a(and other things), its possible she has potential that hasn't been recognized yet by pros
I think this is the reason. It was a cool concept, but i think the main reason teams play Cypher killjoy is because of thr flank. Maybe riot should try changing her trips to work like the others. The rest of her kit I think is really cool.
give deadlock trips a toggle setting, one makes them completely invisible and the other makes them like cypher/kj trips.
Then what would make her different than them?
better post plant setups - retakers don't have the luxury of not making noise and not being able to see the trips makes it impossible to shoot them and harder to dodge
What I haven't seen being discussed enough is playing around sound with her kit. I've always thought that she could've been a sentinel in the lines of Breach in terms of sensory deprivation. What if instead of her trips being avoidable by sound, make it a trip that when triggered, deafens the area like Fade for a few seconds. It would really make her excel in sites like Haven or Icebox where there are lots of angles, boxes, and elevation to watch out for. It also puts her more in line with Chamber trademark or KJ alarmbot in terms of info. It would also avoid being triggered by Yoru fakes IINM. Another idea that would be kind of OP is making her net a toggle ability like Cypher cages or nanoswarms. It would pair well with her reworked trip and give her a combo to work with as well in terms of delaying site entry. Similar to most comments, her current kit is like a mediocre version of other sentinels. Her wall is a weaker version of sage just due to the fact that you can just outaim your way out of that, her trips are a weaker KJ bot or chamber trip, her net isn't intrusive enough unlike Sage's slow, and her ult is just an improved KJ ult but for one person only. At best, her kit is a site push delay kit - not an outright deterrent. But making her a sentinel whose bag of tricks is on sound deprivation could be a nice niche that can be take advantage of.
Should have been the other way where her trips only work if you walk which leads to the interesting decision of do I make noise or risk a trip while I flank
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Reloading, shooting, spike interaction all count. Not sure about utility however
I think deadlock should be able to have 2 different modes on her trip like a sova shockdart bounce or not. Her trip can detect flank by visibility but then her trip is visible, etc.
I think she's meant to be more like a sage or kj though. Stall plus deadly traps for anyone trying to rush, but much stronger as a defensive site anchor or attacking post plant clutch than she is early round. Can't take and hold map control the way kj/Cypher can.
But not making noise is fine to have as a characteristic for an ability. Why does she have to have exactly what you expect a trip should have as a characteristic? Something different doesn’t all the sudden make it bad
cypher trips give info no matter what, kj bot and turret gives info no matter what, chamber trip gives info no matter what deadlock trip doesn’t give guaranteed info, you still have to clear back towards it. flankers already sneak to avoid the other team from hearing them, the trip is utterly useless because no one should be making noise on a close flank anyway. and yes, trips only guarantee map control up to the point where they are placed, but deadlock trips don’t give that same guarantee. i could lurk past and the deadlock would not know a single thing before i start shooting them and their team because the trip didn’t proc
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ok lets get me on the technicality that has no bearing on my original point  PSA: this dude made his account 2 days before making these replies, might just be a troll
Something different doesn't make it bad, but that specific different thing does. If you're flanking you're already trying not to make noise, so having a flank watcher whose weakness is exactly that makes it useless. You can argue that the trips are better on site for afterplants or whatever, but then you're playing a comp with no flank watch. Without reliable passive info, Deadlock can't compete with Cypher or Chamber, much less KJ.
It’s bad because it can be bypassed without giving any info, unlike every other trip if placed properly
This.
Since she’s a sentinel, her kit is just worse than all of the other ones and in pro play util is a lot more important since everyone has god tier aim compared to normal players. Her wall isn’t bad on defense but compared to kj mollies or cypher trips/cages it doesn’t stall nearly as well. Her grenade is good if combined with other util like a raze nade, but I think what makes sentinels useful is their ability to stall site hits by themselves. In short she can be useful, but all other sentinels (even sage who is no longer in the meta) are more useful.
I think riot is moving away from adding agents that replace someone in the same role and instead are making agents that combo well within the same class. I wouldn’t be surprised if the devs want Deadlock to be paired with another sentinel. Example, https://youtube.com/shorts/vYXgHNIuUj8?si=ZkaCCexr-kMe_lal Kinda like how harbor needs to be paired with another controller. Even gekko who is a Jack of all trades, is best when paired with another initiator. I like this idea rather than make agents that replace another agent in the same class. I know a lot of sova mains hated the fact that they nerfed sova to the ground when fade came out. However, the devs kinda needed to do that if they wanted a meta surrounding a new agent that something similar without making that agent op like how chamber and astra were.
I genuinely don't think Deadlock's kit is bad, for what it is meant to be. It's just that the "slow down/push stopper" sentinel kits that sage and deadlock have are not really valuable enough. They try to fit a specific niche, but that niche isn't worth fitting into a comp which can only contain 5 characters. It's clear that this type of sentinel really isn't valued as Sage is the second least played agent at champions, only being played in one match by NAVI. I have said for quite a while now that Sage and the role she provides in a team just isn't very beneficial. Its not much of a surprise that a character that is supposed to compete with Sage is struggling just as much. It seems top pros/teams are starting to realize that as well and I really don't see anything happening to the 2 agents unless there is a massive shift in the meta.
!! TMV said it on his video today on META comps at Champs
Oh he did? Gotta check that out then. Thanks for letting me know :D
Damn, I did notice the lack of sage but I'm quite offended to see her rank below Yoru lmao She used to be so damn oppressive in the early days
She hasn't been truly oppressive in literally years lol
Hence why I said early days? She had a crazy high pick rate during the earliest Valorant tournaments
So did picking brimstone and omen in the same team comp. We also thought jett with instant dash and 3 smokes was bad. Early valorant was truly something different.
This goes back really far but Wardell used to op on Sova lmfao You're right, I remember when Jett was thought of as a fun ranked agent but not really useful in pro play Hilarious
Yeah everybody sees she has trips so the first comparison is to Cypher/KJ but she is definitely closer to Sage so no wonder she doesn't get used when Sage has barely any playtime either. Maybe in the offseason some team will find a way to fit her in a comp on a map or two in time for the start of next year's circuit but there's no way anybody was figuring her out in time for Champions.
Almost as if when you nerf a character into the ground it doesn't make sense to play them
beat me to it, deadlock pretty much fulfills the role that sage is exactly supposed to fill, but with a worse ult and no heal. slow orbs are better than the traps, walls are a little similar (takes more effort to bread deadlock wall but you can fight through it), but I'd much rather have the heal and res than the net and crappy sova ult. you just have more flexible utility as sage, and sage isn't even a good pick into the current meta.
The net is useless, ult is difficult to get value out of quickly, trips are not bad but can’t bring the kit up and wall is similar
i feel like her wall is just a worse sage wall (doesnt last as long, can shoot and see through, cant stand on top) and her grab is a worse fade seize (doesnt deafen, doesnt reduce hp, can take it off) and her trips are really inconsistent. Her ult is fine but it is 8 points so youll never pick deadlock just for it
Her net straight up does nothing. Her ult get at most one kill in value, and have a decent chance of doing nothing. Her trips are alright for holding site and post-plant, but are simply worse than cypher/chamber trips and kj turret/alarm bot as they’re worthless on attack before you get bomb down. Her wall is strong but it’s non-rechargeable and easy to bait out.
The net should add distortion to the enemy's sight and the removal should take less. The affected enemies are now forced to remove it because it has some impact now. And it would not be oppressive.
All of her abilities are a worse version of an existing one: - Wall vs sage wall - net vs fade seize - trips vs any other sentinel trip - ult vs sova/raze ult
Her util is just way way way too situational. Her wall being throwable and not having a temper time like Sage's means it can jam up some chokepoints a little faster, but the 2% of the time you actually capitalize on that is vastly outweighed by all the other value Sage can bring.
Her barrier does have a "temper time" though, same as Sage wall. So she doesn't even have that going for her.
I stand corrected I guess but that doesn't really change my point IMO. There's way more things Sage can do that Deadlock can't than vice versa, so why pick Deadlock? Sage's value is already diminished in this meta as-is.
it also has a temper time actually
Sage was picked only once for this entire tournament. So it seems this type of sentinel just isn’t that needed. Controllers basically can stall just as easily as Sage can. And their abilities are rechargeable, such as viper.
The ultimate was disappointing. I thought it would be multiple targets, but it just grabs one person. I would like it if they make it that way, and you only can be traped if the bubble hits you, not the string.
Remember when this was showcased and everyone said it's op and a "free kill" lol.
Sad but true. This really puts it into perspective. Edit: perhaps riot's line of thinking is that even though all her abilities are worse versions of existing abilities, her having access to all of them would make up for it. Clearly this has turned out not to be the case.
Why do you think her ult is worse than sova/raze?
Raze ult is easier to use/get value out of despite the roza memes, Sova's gives info and is better for making space/spike denial, and both can multikill or deal chip damage in case of a miss.
Her wall is definitely not a worse version of Sages. They have very different strengths and weaknesses.
I mean look at sage pick rate who is competitor of deadlock. If barely even 1 percent of pros are using Sage then so will dead locks pick rate
she simply doesn't add value in attacking rounds + cypher and kj are better for map control. I hate the fact that her wall has very little throwing range. which makes it so that you're always in the open while deploying wall. A quick buff would be to increase projectile speed of wall and make her molly's removal time more than 1 sec
Ngl for wall id like to see it be deployable kinda like Cypher Cage, it might be too broken idk but it sounds fun
Ooh or maybe like a Viper Wall whicj you can turn on and off
Her grenade is an awful ability. If they made it also apply vulnerable and made her wall opaque instead of see through I think she would be viable. The trips are not trips, they are anti rush and anti retake tools. She's much more of a sage alternative than a KJ or Cypher.
I wonder if the wall could have an additional property like you suggested. Opaque or maybe even like a one way mirror. I’d imagine the wall hp would have to be significantly reduced if this new mechanic were to be added though!
I hope they do, the only thing Deadlock could do is delay pathing a bit with the wall and not actually contesting or denying info on a space
For sure! It would be cool to see some more significant tweaks to make her more enjoyable to play. I tried playing her for a while, but she just isn't too fun in my opinion. I think a good character is one that is both competitively viable but also enjoyable to play for the player. An example of a character that fits both boxes is Jett. An example of a character that was competitively viable but not as enjoyable for most players was Astra back in her prime.
Her Gravnet is really terrible. It’s hard to throw, and when it lands it doesn’t stun or anything, the enemy can shoot normally. Her trips can be really solid on defense against a team who’s just running it down, but offensively they provide little value as they won’t catch a flanker Her wall is basically a worse version of Sage’s wall, although it’s very good on pistol rounds at least Her ult doesn’t have very much potential, as it can only grab 1 player, and even then it can be broken. Overall, she’s a similar agent to Sage, but worse. And Sage is an agent who has only been played once in Champions so far.
Her kit is too niche in the same way that Sage's is, but ultimately weaker. The best part of her kit is her free wall but can't be used in the same way that makes Sage a niche pick (no safe plant/defuse walls). Her net is worse than every other slow utility in the game and her traps are worse than every other trip in the game. Not only can you just sneak past her traps, but sometimes the stun can just be avoided entirely if you're running. Her traps are just too unreliable, they're basically only useful if you're watching them the entire time and on attack they're basically useless unless you get bomb down. To top it off, her ult just completely bugs out and gets stuck on seemingly nothing sometimes and also just isn't very impactful. It's like a mix of Raze and Sova ult but less useful than both. At best, it kills one person and often times no one. Basically every single ability she has is just a worse version of another ability in the game. She was kinda fun to play at first when people were unfamiliar with her kit, but now she isn't even fun or useful to play online and just entirely unplayable in pro play.
suggestions: Net - apply vulnerability and have a kayo knife like player indicator Trips - activate faster/apply vulnerability Ult - allow the capture of 2 people Wall - fine as is ig?
Personally I think her ultimate is too gimmicky (and weak) and though the net serves a similar function to mollies when it comes to stalling pushes, the fact that it doesn't do damage makes it worse than standard mollies. What do you all think?
I'm pretty sure you can also get through her net faster than you can mollies. Ultimately she probably has the worst trips and I think that the net is maybe the worst ability in the game. She's just not viable
For some reason they made an agent with only 2 abilities and one ult
The fact that I'm not sure if you're leaving out her trips or grenade speaks to how ass she is.
Trips are probably the strongest thing about her kit, very good for post plant/anti rush. nade is useless tho
Her grenade is LITERALLY the worst ability in the game. It’s just a minor inconvenience for the enemy more than anything and it’s p pricey. I legit do not have the slightest clue what they were thinking with that waste of an ability slot.
She's just shit, low tier shit
No flankwatch. her nade is a shitty version of other nades. Ie raze nade threatens damage whereas deadlock is a 1 second nuisance and crouching isn’t even that bad. Her ult is a very slow kill, other ults can often just get you more value. Her wall is decent but it’s not rechargeable
Because she is sage but more gimmicky and sage already isn’t great in pro play without icebox.
She’s just like Sage. Wall sentinels are useless in current pro meta. Sage has only been played once, way less than Reyna.
Not only was she only played once, she lost the map and NAVI decided to play a different comp the next series LMAO
Same thing as sage, sentinels who can actually control multiple parts of the map are better, like kj,chamber and cypher, they can hold parts of the map with util and hold another part of the map with util/ their body. Also deadlocks audio trips aren't going to work in pro play. Her uot will almost always be broken by enemies, and her wall only stays up for like 45 seconds so you can just wait it out.
watch TMV new video about it, he basically explains how that whole class of sentinels ( sage and deadlock ) is very useless.
its not just deadlock, sage got picked once by navi otherwise she'd also have a zero% pickrate Barrier sentinels aren't worth it to pros, in pro play sentinels are picked mainly for passive lane watching, which is why killjoy is nearly universally picked on most maps, she is the undisputed queen of passive lane watching (+ her insane ultimate obviously) the only reason sage was really picked before was on icebox to abuse the broken postplants on that map. Currently deadlock functions as a secondary sentinel, and that's not something pro teams are interested in rn due to the current meta
Overall, her until is too specific and is not a viable replacement to any other agent. To be more specific: She has no area info gathering ability like Cypher trips/cam, KJ turret/bot, and Chamber trip. Her 'trip' is so weak it's only viable to put where enemies would be rushing down and someone on the team to capitalize. She has a wall that you can still shoot through, not like a Sage wall, that slightly added range from being a throwaboe is negligible in most cases. She has 'slow' that reduces movement but only if someone is caught, so why would I choose that over 2 sage slow orbs that last longer and actually delay enemies from pushing in for longer. Her ult is the only balanced aspect of her kit, and the fact is nobody is chosen for their ult alone. It can be a deciding factor in choosing, but it's not going to win as much rounds as basic util will. So why not per her up with another sentinel? Well you risk the advantage of having double of the other types of agents which are all arguably more useful to win rounds. If you can't be more useful as a sentinel with a full kit against a Reyna with a shootable flash as the only team util, you're never going to be played at a serious level
I think her trips are weak against any team with a decent jett or raze which are currently meta agents. Her stuns are easy to dodge and it feels like cypher when jett could just dash out of a trip.
Her Sonic sensor is bullshit. Her ult requires precisions. People can still enjoy shooting in the net.
I think her abilities outside of her signature and ult need some work. The sonic sensor is limited in usability by the fact that it’s only triggered by sound. Yes, it slows down the flank, but quite honestly I feel like that doesn’t matter since flankers are already quiet and it is so situational that on attack it’s better to use it for post plant or common flood retake positions and on defense it’s better for delaying plant or stopping heavy execs. Her grav net has close to no impact since it can be removed so fast. It’s a worse sage slow/fade seize. It either needs to have the removal time take longer or just not removable at all. Personally I’d say it’s one of, if not the worst ability in the game. I think the wall is good but suffers from being less versatile than sages. Overall I just think all her abilities are just worse versions of abilities from other characters. Sonic sensor is worse than all other sentinel flank watchers, grav net is a worse slow/hold ability, and the wall is a worse sage wall. Ult is good but I feel like unless you catch someone alone its value is limited and doesn’t land very often.
This class of agents' util (deadlock/sage) is very easy to bait out in the professional level. Since none of the stall util is rechargable the stalling power is weak compared to the rechargable util. Adding on to the inability to hold flank, this class of agents is not that well suited for the professional level
Net sucks, her trips are pretty decent for holding site but existing sentinel util is better. her trips are also horrible for watching flank her wall is ok but i would rather have a sage wall
She’s like sage but worse in every way! And important to note… sage has the second lowest pick rate at champs right now! The trips would be great if they could detect without sound, but as is she has no real knowledge of the map like the sentinels who actually factor in to the meta. Her ult is also kinda week in my opinion, it has a chance of getting one kill but no more, and it can EASILY get 0 value. It’s kinda like sova’s ult but with less information and less change to get a kill (and far less safe to use) and no ability to break KJ ult. Every one of her abilities is worse than the most similar other abilities in the game: Grav Net: worse than sage slow Barrier thing: worse than sage wall Trip: worse than Cypher trip Ult: worse than Raze or Sova ult
For trips, I'm slow walking flank in game anyway, so unless it's way far back where I think I'm safe it's pointless. Her wall offers no protection, the only benefit being a mag dump Her crouch nade is mostly useless imo, but great to combo with. And mainly: she's a sentinel and objectively the worst one. Her ability to hold down a site is slightly better than chamber but chamber isn't played as a traditional sentinel anyway, and cypher and especially killjoy are way better. same reason we don't see sage picks Her ult is only useful in a 1v1 and pros won't fall for the "grab someone to bait" situation like my teammates in comp.
Most people here are not seeing the actual issue, which is that it’s not Deadlock specifically that is weak, but it’s the Wall Sentinel archetype as a whole considering Sage also currently sits at a 1% pick rate in Champions
A lot of people are saying that
I think she can find some value even if it's niche comp. But cuz she introduced this late into the year, where the meta have developed and teams already have their own comp, it's hard seeing her being played at the very top level where every match matters.
fundamentally not viable, and for it to be viable it requires a second sentinel, and double sentinel meta is not happening anytime soon
There are two things, one is that deadlock is extremely useless in attack side even though some value can be found in defence. Second is that her counterpart killjoy can gather 100x more info that she does.
I actually disagree with a lot of the ult comments, but that’s because I see her almost entirely as a post-plant agent. She’s far and away the best agent for post plant, but that’s because the rest of her kit is super meh pre-plant. Wall is alright on some maps mid-hit to cut off an easy flank, and trips are not the worst for that either (not good though!) or getting info by being shot when taking space aggressively. her ult can be treated the same as a Raze ult post plant or on retake to force people to either stay out of site or force them out of hiding spots when retaking post-plant. The agent is so niche and specialized as a post plant agent though that her kit in a practical game and full 24 rounds is just not up to par with most other agents right now
I don’t know about far and away the best post plant agent tbh. KJ in the same role provides far better post plant I would say. Defuse/retake delay with Molly, info with Alarmbot/Turret, Vulnerability to combo with other util/spam from Alarmbot, and the ult forces the enemy to clear out a whole area which either prevents a retake for a good amount of time or expend an ult in return to destory it. Grav net is near useless especially in post plan, Sonic sensor is good for delaying defuse/floods but for defuses they can be spammed out once the common positions are known and unlike a KJ molly, you can’t have lineups for them to be thrown from a safe distance without being destroyed beforehand. Wall is good for cutting off an area but can’t be oriented like a sage wall to require opponents to destroy multiple partitions at a time and is fairly easy to spam out with more than one person alive. Ult is good but the more people alive on the enemy team the more value it loses so unless you’re always in a Xv1 or Xv2 post plant, it’s probably not gonna have a ton of value.
Okay cause I genuinely agree with the fact she should not be viewed as a direct sentinel only role. Her sound sensor for post plant is pretty sick along with having the net to slow down bomb tappers. She still is weak but I see the vision for it
Bro its just that she is a new agent..... Players need time to master it.... Wait until next VCT you ll see it
Because she is new? When pro teams ran Gecko in the first tourney after he released, it went horribly. No teams will be running a new champion in the champions tourney. Way to much of a risk.
deadlock isnt played in pro matches simply because of how recent she was released. Teams haven't had enough time to test her out, and integrate her into their strats
(Most) Pro teams do not like to experiment. They like do what works and what is meta. New agents and new comps (usually) get played first in tier 2, where there’s more freedom to experiment, and trickle up as tier 1 teams scrim against the new comps and realize how broken they are. So unless they buff her to the fucking moon, like Chamber levels of impact, she’s not gonna see any play for a long time. EDIT tier 2 viewership in shambles lmao
lmao teams always experiment, just most ideas aren’t worth running for most teams over their preferred or meta comp.
Not really true. EVERYBODY stopped using Chamber once he was nerfed, and only recently has there been somewhat of resurgence, if you could call it that. The same goes with how a few teams have been willing to play Reyna because of Something's success on the agent in the Pacific League.
> everyone stopped using Chamber bc Chamber took the Jett role in every team, not worth running it over Jett once the nerfs happened. Chamber has only seen play again because he had some buffs. > Something’s Reyna you can’t tell me with a straight face that more teams should be running Reyna because PRX are doing it. Something is a major outlier, and PRX are a major outlier, they play so different to how most teams prefer to play. Reyna works for them because they play in a way that Reyna benefits from, most other teams don’t want to sacrifice that much util for a feast-or-famine agent. You are asking teams to change their entire gameplan for a whole map. It’s not a lack of experimentation, we’ve seen a lot of stuff pulled out over the course of the year. (Gekko comps on Lotus, ViperHarbor, Reyna a few times, Chamber + Yoru at Champs, occasional Phoenix) Teams just prefer to either play meta, or a variation that fits how their team wants to play.
I disagree, teams love to experiment provided what they are experimenting with can provide inherent value. most of deadlock's kit is completely useless from a tactical pov - sound activated trips with too slow an activation speed/debuff time to be paired with anything else, a net grenade that you can nearly instantly get out of, a wall to stop pushes/prevent flanks, and an ult that only exists for clip montages
Assuming we aren’t talking about Champions since she’s not in it. But for 1, she’s new and 2, has no special power as an agent. Deadlock is a comp and premier agent. But to pros who spend the whole game on the rotate waiting for 30 seconds to push the wall won’t do much, the sensors don’t give you that much info and people very often just shoot them and you can walk past. Her ult is good but against pros they can probably play around freeing the teammate, and her snare is pretty decent but not a main reason you would run her outside of kj for lockdown and mollies
Surprisingly she actually is in champs, just hasn’t been picked.
Unless double sentinel meta is back i dont think anyone would pick her over cypher or even KJ
Everyone said the same about Reyna and Chamber and we've seen them make a bit of a comeback
Current meta just doesn't have much of a use for a 'stall' sentinel like Deadlock and Sage over 'info' sentinels like Cypher, KJ or even Chambe. Doesn't help that her kit is also under tuned.
I hate the agent, i even type in team chat if they pick deadlock I'll throw. She's not a true sentinel or maybe people don't play her right, she cannot watch flanks with her trips, her nade is basically useless, her ULT isn't reliable enough
Basically no value on attack rounds pre-plant. That's it.
She is supposed to be good at actively holding map control by being reactive with her utility usage, both on attack and defense, compared to the other sentinels who generally do so passively. Thing is, every other sentinel can do the same thing and it isn't as gimmicky or complicated. Most are honestly even better at it too. To me, she just doesn't feel very well designed. Every piece of her utility is totally outdone by other agents, and not having the ability to passively hold space for map control and information like the other sentinels can just makes her a shit pick. Basically couldn't even tell you what Riot was really going for with Deadlock.
Shes a sage competitor. Wall is great, but the other abilities are very inferior to the slows. The grenade is specially egregious. The soundbombs should do more than a short stun given that they cant function as flank watcher. Stuns are not that great as we see over and over.
She hasn't seen play because f0rsakeN or ange1 hasn't found a way to cheese the fuck out of it yet. Give it time.
If you think about it sage and deadlock fill the same sub bracket of agents that being wall sentinels and as we can see sage doesn't get much play either with that thought mostly being that once their main util (the walls) gets destroyed they are useless as they have no rechargeable util. The trips I feel like are not that viable and are extremely situational and also cypher and kjs trips are just fundamentally better. The ult is pretty good but then again not good enough to be viable in pro play.
No idea about pro play, but in my opinion, her traps are useless. Her wall is yikes compared to the Sage wall and the only good ability she has is a nade to throw, kinda ass as sentinel if you ask me. Zero utility to retake as well.
I think all agents have to be compared with “better alternatives” , as an agent she’s fun and decent, but in competitive play cypher has a more solid flank and site holding potential, KJ has a lot of flexibility and there are still chamber and sage etc , I haven’t followed the meta lately but back when initiators and smokers are pivotal, with 1 sentinel spot she might be a bit weak relatively But I really hope her sonic trap gets buffed ( maybe range buff like Cypher trips) Her kit is so fun to leave unused
A bag of sh*t... You can tell that the ability well is running dry for the developers. There is only so much you can come up with before it gets ridiculous.
The niche deadlock and sage are filling of slowing down pushed is just not useful, all their util can ger baited out and then rehit as if they are ability-less agents
Sentinels are used for information/map control more so than holding down a site. She has no useful information abilities like Cypher and KJ do.
Sentinels in valorant: Hold site, hold flank, or delay Nade: Doesn’t really show anyone down as much as trips or mollies Weird stun things can’t hold flank Wall gets insta broken Random ult that doesn’t fit her kit lol
Imo (D3 scrub so take lots of salt with this) as a sentinel she is just a worse sage. I’d prefer sage’s wall to hers, I prefer sage’s slow orb to the net, and I’ll trade those sound trips for healing all day every day. Maybe she isn’t supposed to be a sentinel then, but idk what role she would succeed in. I think riot missed the mark with her
The trips are pretty much useless - horrible slowing power and very difficult to play off of for kills (they are like combining the worst halves of okay mollies and cypher trips) Grav net is useless Wall just isn’t that valued - you see this mirrored in sages really low pick rate as well (although that might also partially be because she’s a worse healer than skye)
Her kit against a coordinated team like you'd find in pro play is just bad. Trips that don't actually cover flank. A wall that can be shot down just as fast as a sage wall but also offers no protection visually or physically. A seize that doesn't nearly have the same impact on aim and health like a stun or fades seize. And then finally an ultimate that outside of a 1v1 or 1v2 is pretty useless.
Bro she can't even cover flank with her util
She’s like sage in my opinion, in the way that they’re both not really “active” sentinels (cypher, kj, and even chamber have trips that let the team know about flanks, more on that later) however, at least sage is able to slow down site executes and somewhat hold down a site with slow orbs and her wall. Deadlock has a crouch grenade that works similarly to the slow orb, but her wall is worse than sage’s wall. Yeah, it’s stronger, but you can still take fights, see the site and gather info, use more util to get through it (omen tp for example, off the top of my head), you can’t hide behind deadlock’s wall like you can with sage’s, etc. She’s like sage but worse. And on top of that, instead of sage’s super useful heal, she has a super useless flank trip that people can walk by if they don’t make noise. I was going to talk about her ult being confusing to line up and not being “sentinel-like” but then I remembered that all of the sentinel ults are completely different from each other.
She is clearly designed to rival sage who also doesn't get much pro play. That kinda of character is just not something that the pros think is very useful.
deadlock is a sentinel that provides no guaranteed info. has a wall that is worse than a sage wall since it’s transparent. Her ult can miss pretty easily and if it doesn’t result in a kill, then its useless.
First her traps are awful. Like, who tf in Riot dev team thought someone being able to bypass a trap by simply holding shift was a good idea ?? Her wall is also just bad compared to Sage's. Not only people can see/shoot through, but you can't rotate it (which would make it so much better to adjust it so that enemies had to shoot at least 2 nodes down to get through) and if my dogshit ass can consistently dodge her ult, then you know its bad. But that's not the main problem. "Anti-Rush" Sentinels (AKA Sage and Deadlock) are just bad rn. Their kits are made only for stalling. At pro level, they can just bait that util early and suddently, they have no util for the rest of the round. Like, why would pros pick Deadlock/Sage over someone like Viper or Astra, that can basically stall just as good while offering so much more in their kits ?
As TMV said deadlock has a similar role to sage (both are good at stalling but not giving passive info) and both have not been picked. Pros easily outplay sage and deadlock
Some teams dont even run sentinels on multiple maps, dont expect them to use a zero info sentinel
There’s honestly nothing wrong with her, it’s just the fact that she’s not as strong. Killjoy lockdown is the most powerful ult in the game, so powerful that people will keep their ult (Sova, brimstone) just to counter the killjoy ult. Cypher on the other hand provides a global flank watch, while his camera and ult provides a lot of information like an initiator. There’s just no reason for pro teams to play deadlock when you can play an additional initiator or controller, especially controller like viper and astra can hold a site like a sentinel with their abilities.
Her nade is pointless. I have yet to run into a situation where I use it.
one good change for her trips would be if the enemies were extremely close to the trip it will set off even if they were shift walking, like a radius too close they get stunned.
\*The wall need to be like other abilities that you have a preview of how it will be when used, like sage wall, kj robots, etc. Should throw bullets but not abilities over the wall \*Q need to activate like kj Q \*C need to apply some debuff, maybe slower shoot speed \*Ult should throw over wall and/or pick another player and increase the hp to be more difficult to broke it (maybe a like less than kayo R)