Deadlock’s roles explained (and who does them best)

Deadlock, Valve’s new 6v6 MOBA and hero shooter, breaks the mould by doing away with predefined roles or lane assignments. Instead of queueing for a role like Dota 2 or Overwatch 2, players choose from at least three heroes, and the game will randomly assign them their lane and partner.

While the standard archetypes are there, Deadlock’s roster isn’t as rigid as almost all of the Occultists can be built differently through itemisation. With that in mind, let’s run through Deadlock’s unofficial roles and how knowing these archetypes can help you adapt on the fly.

Valve hasn’t codified roles in Deadlock, but characters excel in certain archetypes due to factors like their gun, damage scaling, and ability tiers. Deadlock’s roster has enough flexibility that players can pretty much build them to their needs instead of being pigeonholed by the developer’s intended roles. 

Knowing what roles you can take in Deadlock will help round out your teamcomp and counter the enemy. It’s best to familiarise yourself with your character’s capabilities and the item shop to adjust mid-round.

A Gun carry is a hero built for long-range weapon damage and precision shooting. This is your traditional hypercarry role, characters who are weak in the early game but slowly become a teamfighting monster with souls and items.

These marksmen stack sustained DPS through their basic attacks, boosted by abilities that amplify their gun and on-hit effects from items. Some gun carries will have a mix of spirit damage baked into their kit, but the bulk of their damage will still come from their weapon

Gun carries typically buy farming items first to accelerate their soul lead. Then, they look for items that boost bullet damage, critical hits, fire rate, and ammo, while also incorporating defensives and situational pickups into the mix.

Lastly, sometimes all you need is an amazing gun, even if their kit doesn’t scream carry. For example, Glocket (gun Pocket) and Gunman (gun Doorman) are popular off-meta gun builds in Deadlock.

A spirit carry focuses on scaling their abilities rather than basic attacks. Spirit refers to Deadlock’s ability-power stat, and many heroes have skills that grow stronger with spirit items. This category fits the burst caster or mage role, yet in Deadlock, it can also toe the line into a gun carry, provided they deal most of their damage through spirit scaling abilities.

A spirit carry piles on spirit items to boost spell damage on their spirit scaling abilities. They buy items to further enhance their abilities, like reducing cooldowns, increasing the area of effect, or reducing their resistances. They spike earlier compared to gun carries, shining the most during the mid game, while slowly losing effectiveness as the game drags on.

Initiators are the heroes who start fights. They have the tools to engage the enemy team, whether that’s through a huge crowd control or the ability to isolate targets for a clean pick-off, as long as they aren’t afraid to go in first. 

These heroes usually have strong crowd control and mobility to move around the map. Whether they’re engaging, ganking, or disengaging, Initiators force favourable engagements and are the key to getting anything done in the game:

Initiators have different ways and strengths to start or control fights. They purchase items that will help them get into the best position, such as Majestic Leap, Warp Stone, or anything for movement speed. Then, depending on the team’s needs, they can either tank up or deal more damage after their initial engagement.

A frontliner is the closest thing to a traditional tank: the durable hero who stands in front, soaks up damage, and creates space for the team. They’re tanky, yet also threaten incredible damage when left uncontested. Their intimidating presence forces opponents to deal with them right now while their allies follow up.

In practice, frontliners stack vitality items (health, armour, damage reduction, lifesteal) and often pick up items to mitigate enemy damage depending on their draft. A well-played frontliner is impossible to ignore and always makes fights awkward for the enemy team.

Assassins are high-risk, high-reward picks in Deadlock. They specialise in burst damage, duelling, mobility, and isolating targets. They thrive during the mid-game since they’re usually roaming lane to lane or hunting for vulnerable prey in their jungle.

Whether they’re dealing damage through gun, spirit, melee, or a mix of all three, assassins are the best at taking down key targets. They buy items to help with their initial burst, such as actives or conditionals that give them a brief surge of power.

Support heroes focus on helping their teammates and enabling their teammates through buffs, defensives, debuffs, and other utility. Deadlocks’ supports aren’t passive participants; they can still deal respectable damage and become a nuisance when left alone.

No one is forced to play a hard-defined support role in Deadlock, but having support skills on the team is undeniably powerful. Supports are the prime candidates for filling in anything the team needs with their itemisation, whether that’s team-wide auras or simply items to counter annoying enemy heroes.

Deadlock’s lack of traditional roles is more than welcome when you realise how every character is fluid and dynamic, with a robust item shop that lets you adjust according to what the team needs to win. Some specialists are the best at their archetype, yet there are also flexible characters like McGinnis and Viscous that are built to make on-the-fly adjustments.

Deadlock demonstrates that he rigid roles aren’t needed as long as Valve gives every character the space and opportunity to become versatile. In a genre often defined by strict class formulas, Deadlock empowers players to truly play their own way.