Don’t sleep on Deadlock’s active items

For my first hundred games in Deadlock’s Cursed Apple, trips to the shop were a bewildering descent into a department store of weaponry, constantly uncertain of my loadout and caught in severe choice paralysis. Each shop stop was a high pressure sales experience, as I felt quite literally under the gun with only seconds to compare/contrast buffs before I needed to catapult myself back into the fray. Each time I went back to the shop, my shopping cart filled up with passive items, not active items, as the thought of adding another button to my noir-soaked bullet ballet induced panic. 

Over time this aversion became a habit, and my eyes simply glazed over Deadlock's active items, rarely if ever considering them despite what popular builds recommended I buy. The dam finally broke for me a month ago when I bought Warp Stone out of raw frustration at my inability to catch mobile and fleeing enemies, and within minutes I was hooked on my newfound ability to teleport around no matter which hero I'm maining at the moment. My fear over additional buttons was logical, but unfounded, because Deadlock’s active items are often integral to rounding out your character and adapting to opponents doing the same. 

My button-itis almost robbed me of one of the most important, rewarding aspects of Deadlock builds. So I’m here to say: don’t follow in my footsteps and sleep on Deadlock’s active items. I’ve highlighted some of the ones I feel are the most useful and the circumstances you’ll want to consider investing in them yourself. 

Warp Stone

Rating: Universal

The Swiss army knife of Deadlock, because what situation doesn’t benefit from an instant teleport? Using Warp Stone will blink you forward 11 meters in whatever direction you’re looking and give you a 30% boost in Bullet Resist for five seconds afterwards, making it perfect for closing with a fleeing enemy, disengaging from a bad fight, or setting up the perfect ultimate. Seven can use Warp Stone to blink to a great spot for Storm Cloud, Pocket can do similarly with his ultimate Affliction, and of course there’s Haze’s Bullet Dance. Likewise, characters who tend to chase or play hit-and-run styles like Shiv or McGinnis can also really benefit from increased mobility. Especially consider Warp Stone if you’re building primarily Spirit on your character, since Warp Stone takes up a Bullet slot, which is a lower value spot for most Spirit builds, so you can fill that slot with a 3,000 soul item that gives you a blink every 16 seconds.

Echo Shard

Rating: Hero Dependent

If Warp Stone is a Swiss army knife, then Echo Shard is the repeat button on your favorite song. For 6,200 souls, you get a 21-second cooldown item that resets the cooldown of your most recently used non-ultimate ability–essentially meaning you can double cast an ability every 21 seconds. Make people float with double Tornado’s on Mirage, throw your Mini Turrets out quickly, or coax your opponents right back to sleep if they’ve woken up too early from your Sleep Dagger. More than just a tool, Echo Shard is the cornerstone of a wide variety of heroes who can build around its unique ability to double down on powerful abilities, like Bebop’s infinitely stacking Sticky Bomb, or McGinnis putting up two Spectral Wall’s at once.

Debuff Remover

Rating: Situational

You will never need Debuff Remover until you do, and then you’ll be incredibly glad for it. A whole bundle of enemies apply debuff effects to your character, but there are a few who will hit you so hard (or for so long) that you’ll need a hard counter just to save your life. Shiv’s Serrated Knives ability applies a long lasting bleed that can stack, while Infernus is all about stacking burn damage—both good targets for Debuff Remover if they’re getting ahead of your team in Souls. Ahead of the pack, though, are two killer abilities that frequently need to be debuffed: Pocket’s ultimate Affliction burdens you with an 18 second long damaging debuff that can also reduce your healing by 60%, and while it can’t kill you outright, it will certainly get you killed. Bebop’s Sticky Bomb ability—which counts down for a few seconds before exploding for permanently stacking damage—can be deadly in Spirit builds, even worse if he’s using Echo Shard to double it up. Debuff Remover is your one-and-done defense against all of these and more, every 48 seconds.

Rescue Beam

Rating: Universal

The support player's best friend. While characters like Dynamo come with supportive abilities, you can take them—and your friends—to soaring new heights with a Rescue Beam. Using it on an ally will tether them to you with a beam that heals them for about a quarter of their health over 2.5 seconds—a fairly strong heal. What really makes Rescue Beam invaluable is its alternate ability: You can reactivate it during the 2.5 second channel to instead pull your tethered ally toward you—allowing you to yank allies out of losing situations or set them up for huge plays. It’s a must have active item for any character that can use their mobility to take advantage of it, especially characters like Ivy and Kelvin, 

Unstoppable

Rating: Situational

Never get knocked out of your ultimate again. Whether it’s Haze’s Bullet Dance or Bebop’s Hyper Beam, knowledge isn’t half the battle to dealing with them: it’s using stuns to interrupt them. That’s where Unstoppable enters the picture (unfortunately, if you’re one of the characters trying to stun Haze out of her ultimate) to shake things up. Using Unstoppable gives you six seconds of immunity to crowd control, including stuns and silences. Although you can’t use Unstoppable when you’re already stunned or silenced, as you get into the late stages of the game, activating an Unstoppable before a critical ultimate or big play will make the difference between a win or a loss.

Knockdown

Rating: Situational

On the other side of the coin is an active item that helps you deal with powerful channeled ultimates and mobile characters who can get out of your reach, like Vindicta or Lash. It can be a pain to deal with characters that can immediately get airborne, leaving your gun at a disadvantage and making it difficult or impossible to hit them with abilities, and many characters don’t have the crowd control to deal with something like a Seven channeling his Storm Cloud, which is where Knockdown comes in. Usable every 48 seconds, Knockdown has a massive 45m cast range in all directions, so you can easily use it to go duck hunting. Just be aware that once you use it on an enemy, there’s a 2 second windup before it goes off, so it’s not going to instantly save you from any ongoing damage from the enemy you throw it at—it’s best to use it and then dive for cover until it goes off.

Ethereal Shift

Rating: Situational

Have you ever felt like you just needed to survive a few extra seconds and you’d have been able to turn everything around? Ethereal Shift gives you 3.5 seconds of invulnerability, protected from all damage and effects. Using Ethereal Shift gives you a guaranteed, but fleeting window to pop a powerful ability—like Pocket’s ultimate Affliction—and then protect yourself immediately after while your team takes advantage. Likewise, Ethereal Shift can buy you valuable time when enemies dive onto you for a "sure" kill, going invulnerable leaves them stranded with your allies around you, or lets you dodge a dangerous attack like the explosion of Bebop’s Sticky Bomb ability. With Ethereal Shift available every 32 seconds, you’ll be able to use it even in small skirmishes knowing it will be available again soon.

Silence Glyph

Rating: Hero Dependent

One of the most powerful tools for dealing with persistent and evasive characters like Pocket and Shiv, Silence Glyph damages an enemy and silences them for three seconds, locking them out of abilities. Landing a Silence Glyph on a hero that relies on abilities to escape or deal the majority of their damage is often as good as landing the killing blow. Inversely, a diving character like Shiv can use Silence Glyph to ensure a slippery enemy like Wraith can’t escape them or crowd control them by using their own Silence Glyph when they run into the back ranks of the enemy team.