Deadlockis Valve’s third-person MOBA. It combines elements of hero shooters with the macro plays and split-pushing essential in traditional MOBAs like League of Legends or Dota 2. The game features everything, from tanky initiators who flourish amidst chaotic brawls to agile assassins who want to get out after dealing a burst of damage.
With such a large and diverse cast of playable characters to choose from, each with its own extremely varying playstyle, it might be overwhelming to figure out who to play. If you’re not a fan of shooters or just want to rejoice in the pleasure of beating your foes down up close, melee heroes are an amazing choice.
6Mo & Krill
Mo & Krill, while a very durable hero that can tank loads of damage while barging into the enemy, can be built in many ways. A ranged DPS build is just as viable as going melee. However, if you want to utilize all the strengths their kit provides, keeping it melee might be better.
You can use Scorn while burrowed underground, or while spinning.
Scorn deals damage to enemies nearby them, and heals Mo & Krill. The second ability, Burrow, lets you burrow underground, speeding up and taking reduced damage. Recasting the second ability makes you pop out and start spinning, dealing damage to enemies around you, while using the third one, Sand Blast, disarms enemies directly in front of you. When you use their Ultimate, it lets you target a nearby enemy and stun them for a long duration, dealing continuous damage throughout.
5Bebop
Bebop fills Deadlock’s scrapyard robot archetypeand is one of the more versatile characters in the game. He can be built as a melee DPS, a ranged DPS, or even as a tank. He takes elements of typical tank supports, like Blitzcrank from League or Roadhog from Overwatch, and slaps a huge laser on top of the kit.
Bebops’s Exploding Uppercut has him perform a punch that knocks back enemies. This scales off of your melee damage and can be chained into a heavy melee if done under the right circumstances. His second ability, aptly named Sticky Bomb, lets you attach a sticky bomb to a nearby enemy, which you can then reposition using your displacement skills.
Bebop’s third ability is his most iconic one, being a hook that can pull enemies towards you. And of course, his ultimate is a giant Hyper Beam of mass destruction.
4Viscous
This slimey support does a little bit of everything. He can displace enemies, peel for teammates, give himself or an ally invincibility, and turn himself into a giant wrecking ball. This versatility makes him one of the best heroes in Deadlock.
Viscous’s Puddle Punch, despite being a long ranged ability, deals melee damage. you’re able to use this to utilize melees without worrying about closing distance or taking damage.
Being a support with many ways to survive an onslaught of damage, Viscous has no problem staying close to enemies. If he’s caught in a bad situation, he can either turn into The Cube and nullify all day, Puddle Punch himself (or his enemies) half a mile away, or simply turn into Goo Ball and roll away.
3Lash
If you’re used to playing mobile assassins that require large amounts of skill and offer high outplay potential, you’d probably like Lash. He’s very annoying to play against, and an absolute chore to catch. His playstyle revolves around jumping in, dealing damage, jumping out, and repeating until you may use a game-changing Ultimate. This hit-and-run playstyle makes it very easy for him to weave in melees during his skills, especially when paired with Grapple.
Lash’s first ability has him stomp the ground in front of him, dealing damage. This damage is increased if he’s in the air, scaling by how high it is. Lash has many ways to reposition himself in the air, making this a fearsome ability. Grapple lets Lash pull himself towards an enemy or an ally, and resets the cooldown on his dashes and jumps.
His third ability, Flog, makes Lash steal health from enemies. Enemies hit by Flog are also marked. Lash can then use his Ultimate to take marked enemies into the air, stunning them and slamming them into the ground.
2Yamato
If you can’t bring a knife to a sword fight, bring a sword. Yamato’s entire kit revolves around her swords, dealing high damage with her skills and following up with melee attacks. She already has to be close to enemies to hit her skills, making it convenient to build for melee damage. Furthermore, both Power Slash and Flying Strike can be canceled early, letting you surprise opponents with a melee.
You can cancel the damaging animation from Flying Strike by pressing the spacebar. You can do this in conjunction with a melee, and then follow up with either of your damaging skills.
Power Slash lets you charge up and perform a ranged sword slash that deals high damage, while Crimson Slash makes Yamato swing her at enemies in melee range, dealing damage and healing herself. Flying Strike is Yamato’s gap closer, letting her attach a grappling hook to an enemy to pull herself to them. Upon landing, she deals damage to and slows the enemy hit.
Yamato’s ultimate is a buff that renders her invulnerable while charging. Once the brief charging phase ends, Yamato resets all her skill cooldowns and makes the skill animations faster. Yamato also cannot die while her Ultimate is active, making her one of the best solo carry heroes in Deadlock.
1Abrams
Abrams is the closest Deadlock has given us to a pure melee hero. He’s still fully functional with a ranged build, but he shines best as an offensive,tanky initiator. He has ways of sustaining himself up close, as well as multiple ways to close the distance between him and his targets. Being one of the morebeginner-friendly heroes in Deadlock, it’s easy to learn how his kit works.
His first skill lets him siphon health off of nearby enemies, encouraging you to get up close and personal with the opposing team. His second skill is a dash that knocks back enemies, stunning them if they collide with a wall. His third gives him more durability in the form of health regeneration and damage mitigation, and his ult lets you jump up into the air and smash into the enemy team, dealing a significant amount of damage.
