Deadlock's recent patch is a big one. There are big hero changes, map redesigns, and six new heroes for players to check out if they've got 50 games under their belt. Although these won't be added to ranked or casual play for some time, don't worry—you won't be at a disadvantage.
The six new heroes added are Calico, Holliday, Magician, Viper, Wrecker, and Fathom, who was originally named Slork. It was a bold and innovative name, and I can't figure out why Valve had decided to change it, but there's no use crying over spilled milk, so we'll all just have to make the best of the situation and promise to only refer to him as Slork.
You'll be able to play all of these heroes in the Hero Labs, a new experimental mode that lets players with over 50 games play matches with an extended cast of heroes and give feedback on new hero designs. The new heroes included in this can have placeholder names, models, effects, and even abilities, which gives me hope that Slork's new name isn't permanent.
Out of all of the new heroes, Calico is the one I want to like the most. Her hero background is very impressive: she was "granted the dubious honour of being named Time Magazine's most dangerous woman on the planet." Plus, all of her abilities revolve around cats. Her primary abilities include Sekhmet's Spirit, which lets her send an explosive spectre cat to attach onto enemies, Pounce which gives her the ability to leap at a target, and Nekomata Ward, which lets her deploy a cat statue that'll track enemies and attack anyone Calico recently damaged. Calico's ultimate ability, Queen of the Shadows, is also incredibly cool as it surrounds her in shadows, turning her invisible so she can attack enemies from out of nowhere.
Calico was quite fun to play, but I definitely need to get better at faking out enemies with Nekomata Ward and learn how to disengage from fights quicker if I want to make an impact playing as them.
Then there's Slork (otherwise known as Fathom), who can spray scalding water onto enemies, lurch forward to do damage, defer incoming damage temporarily, and has an ultimate that lets him throw a harpoon that can latch onto a surface and pull foes in. Slork's third ability, deferring damage, is something of an unsung hero. I cannot count the times in which I've been so close to making it out of a fight, only to die just before getting to safety. Being able to defer incoming damage even for a short time could give me the moment I need to survive near-death encounters, regain health, and fight back.
Holliday's abilities are to launch an explosive powder keg, place a jump pad, get extra damage for headshots and lasso enemies to drag them behind you. Magician can fire a bolt of magic, summon a carbon copy that can also attack enemies, curse a target to turn into a little rabbit, and swap their position with an enemy player. Wrecker also has some fantastic abilities, like creating a giant scrap projectile, stunning enemies, firing out the consumed remains of dead players, and finally, creating a shadow copy of yourself that you can use like a remote-controlled helicopter.
Last but not least, Viper, the lizard hero, has a pretty interesting gimmick: sliding. If you slide in Deadlock, you get infinite ammo. So, to make the most of this, you can extend your slide by building stamina and speed or learning movement combos like dash-slide or dash-jump. With many heroes, sliding is more convenient than necessary, but with Viper, it's a must.
Viper's mag is tiny—with 18 bullets, it would be hard to win a one-on-one fight without extending your ammunition by sliding. But to even things out a bit, Viper does have a slightly longer slide than most other heroes, and their gun does a ton of damage. So far, all of Viper's public builds have worked to beef up stamina and speed. I've found that the build Don't Stop Moving works really well to give Viper a fighting chance against more aggressive enemies. "This build focuses on moving around and constantly sliding while fighting for the 50% bullet evasion+infinite ammo," the description says. "Your venom (2) is your finisher and is extremely powerful on low hp enemies."
The Hero Lab is only open for a few hours each day, and so far, there have been a couple of issues with matchmaking, but the problem isn't poor connections or unstable servers. Actually, the real problem is man-made. "The Hero Lab is a cool idea, but so far, half the time, people leave as soon as they don't get a new hero," an admin on Deadlock Intel says. I've had some luck playing new characters, but a lot of the Hero Lab games I play are just like my usual roster of heroes. Playing regular characters may not be as fun as experimenting with the new ones, but it's still a welcome break from ranked play, so I'm not complaining.
