Deadlock has a great roster of heroes, each having their own strengths and weaknesses. Kelvin is a hero who is strong both offensively and defensively. He is among the best heroes for ganking enemies and creating an advantage for your teammates. If played correctly, Kelvin can make it unplayable for the opponents, helping your team win every team fight. There are many different ways to build Kelvin, but after rigorous trials, we have found this to be the best Deadlock Kelvin build for all scenarios in the game. Use this Kelvin build to freeze your way into enemy ranks, creating an advantage for your team in every team fight.
Best Kelvin Build Items in Deadlock
Note: This build is available in the Public Builds section of Deadlock. You can get it by searching ‘Beebom Kelvin Build‘ (build id: 165812). The build can be used directly or can be copied and edited as per your need from the game’s Browse Build section.
Best Laning/Early Game Items
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Kelvin is a fairly strong lane partner, especially with his level 2 Frost Grenades, which can heal. His early laning stage is fairly simple: level up to your Frost Grenades to level 2, use the Ice Path to get the high ground, and harass enemies with your Arctic beam, also securing souls with it.
Start with Restorative Shots to sustain yourself until you unlock level 2 Frost Grenade, followed by High-Velocity mag. Kelvin has high base gun damage, so getting two weapon items early will allow you to deal with good damage in the laning phase. High-Velocity mag also helps secure souls, as Kelvin’s base bullet velocity is quite low.
Now, start getting Extra Spirit, Mystic Reach, and Mystic Burst, increasing your core abilities. Follow it with Sprint Boots, and now you can gank enemies on the side lanes using your Ice Path. Next, get Mystic Shot, which deals with much spirit damage early on and scales with your Spirit’s power.
Next, get Soul Shredder bullets to get the Spirit Lifesteal from enemies after your bullets connect with them. Remember to engage enemies with your Arctic Beam after hitting them with your bullets. Finally, get Mystic Vulnerability, allowing you to decrease Spirit Resist on enemies when they take Spirit damage.
Situational:
- If you are getting harassed early on in the game, a good choice is to get Healing Rite early. Healing Rite will sustain you until you unlock your level 2 Frost Grenade.
- Fleetfoot is another great situational item against enemies that are constantly applying crow-control debuffs on you. You can get it by selling Restorative shots.
- Similarly, Divine Barrier is a great item to exit bad fights where you are outnumbered and low on HP. It instantly gives you Spirit and Bullet Shield while also increasing your movement speed for a brief time.
Best Core/Mid-game Items
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Kelvin’s advantage over other heroes is based on his ganking potential and survivability, making him a top hero pick in Deadlock. So, first, upgrade to Enduring Speed. This will allow you to both chase down enemies and get yourself out of tricky situations.
Next, get Enchanter’s Barrier and Combat Barrier as your first two vitality core items. Both these items will give you 300 Bullet Shield and Spirit Shield while also increasing your Bullet and Spirit damage while having shields. Shields are very strong on Kelvin as you constantly swoop in and out of fights, letting your shields take the brunt of the damage instead of your health bar.
Follow up with upgrading to Improved Burst, Improved Spirit, and Improved Reach. Imbue Improved Reach to your Arctic Beam, allowing you to freeze enemies from a safe distance. These three core updates will give a massive spike to your damage output, unlocking Kelvin’s true potential.
Situational:
- When your team is behind in souls, and there are strong tanks in the opposite teams, prioritize Healbane over Combat Barrier. The healing reduction will help your team take down those health giants in seconds, especially once your Arctic Beam is level 3.
- Reactive Barrier is the best item you can get if you are getting harassed by Beebop, Wraith, Seven or Mo and Krill.
- Other than that, Debuff Remover is another good choice over Reactive Barrier against heavy crowd control enemies, as well as damage over time enemies. This item can get rid of all debuffs applied on you, including Infernus’ Afterburn, Pocket’s Toxic Ult, and more. This ability can also get rid of Seven’s stun.
Best Luxury/Late Game Items for Deadlock Kelvin Build
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Late-game Kelvin can be a menace, as he can deal a ton of damage while staying alive and healing his allies simultaneously. Start with building Spirit Armor, later followed by the Improved Spirit Armor upgrade.
Next, get Escalating Exposure, which is the first 6200 core item for Kelvin. This item is very powerful on Kelvin as his Arctic beam constantly deals spirit damage to enemies, building the Spirit Resist reduction stacks on them. Following up with a Frost Grenade can almost always kill enemies or at least take away a large chunk of their health bar.
Now, follow up with upgrades to Spellslinger Headshots, Pristine Emblem, and Boundless Spirit. Spellslinger Headshots will increase your Spirit Lifesteal on enemies and give additional Spirit Power on Headshots.
Pristine Emblem is a great item for shredding large health bars, and Boundless Spirit improves all core parts of Kelvin’s abilities to the utmost capacity. At this point, you can destroy enemies in a team fight, easily racking up those Assist and Kill counts.
Situational:
- When your team is behind in souls, and there are strong tanks in the opposite teams, prioritize Healbane over Combat Barrier. The healing reduction will help your team take down those health giants in seconds, especially once your Arctic Beam is level 3.
- Reactive Barrier is the best item you can get if you are getting harassed by Beebop, Wraith, Seven or Mo and Krill.
- Other than that, Debuff Remover, an upgrade to Debuff Reducer, is another good choice over Reactive Barrier against heavy crowd control enemies, as well as damage over time enemies. This item can get rid of all debuffs applied to you, including Infernus’ Afterburn, Pocket’s Toxic Ult, and more. This ability can also get rid of Seven’s stun.
Kelvin Flex Slot Items
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Kelvin’s primary focus is on survivability and his spirit damage, so you don’t really need Weapon items in his Flex slots. First, get Duration Extender and Bullet Armor for his two early slots.
Next, get Veil Walker in the 3rd Flex slot, which will let you stay in battle much longer. As you would have built a massive Bullet and Spirit shield up to this point, simply traversing through a veil will refill them when they get broken in a fight. This will let you stay much longer in fights, while also allowing you to run if the fights don’t go in your favor.
Finally, get Leech for your final flex slot, which will literally transform Kelvin into an unkillable monster if you play him correctly. Now, follow up with upgrades to Superior Duration, imbuing it to Arctic Beam and Improved Bullet Armor. Now, your Kelvin is ready for any end-game fights, and your team will most like come out at the top if you play him correctly.
Situational:
- Although you don’t need it for Kelvin, you can get Spiritual Overflow over Leech in his Flex Slots, increasing your damage output at the cost of survivability.
- Silencer is another great Situational item for Flex slots, especially with the new passive apply. This can further help your team during team fights.
- Heroic Aura is another great low-cost Flex item that maximizes your team’s damage in fights. This item is great when you are struggling in a match while many of your allies are caught up in souls. Instead of fighting solo, you can tag these allies alone and use Heroic Aura to further increase their damage to enemies.
Deadlock Kelvin Build: Abilities and Unlock Order
Kelvin is a very ability-heavy character, so building items without knowing how to use his abilities will leave you in a bad position. With Kelvin, your focus should be using his Ice Path to quickly gank enemies, using his Frost Grenades to heal yourself and allies, using his Arctic Beam as a standard in team fights, and using his Frozen Shelter to isolate enemies for your team for easy kills. Here is an overview of all Kelvin’s abilities and in which Ability Point Order you must unlock them:
All Kelvin Abilities
- Frost Grenade: Throw a grenade that explodes in a cloud of freezing ice, damaging and slowing enemies
- Level 1: +1 Charges
- Level 2: Frost Grenade now heals 125 HP to friendly targets. Scales with Spirit.
- Level 3: +175 Damage
- Ice Path: Kelvin creates a floating trail of ice and snow that gives movement bonuses to him and his allies. Kelvin gains 60% slow resistance for the duration. Enemies can also walk on the floating trail. Press [LEFT SHIFT]/[LEFT CTRL] to travel up or down while in Ice Path.
- Level 1: +4m/s Sprint Speed
- Level 2: -16s Cooldown
- Level 3: While active, gain +1 Spirit Power per meter of Ice Path trail created. Max of 55 Spirit Power
- Arctic Beam: Shoot freezing cold energy out in front of you, damaging targets and building up movement and fire rate slow against them the longer you sustain the beam on them. You have reduced movement speed while using Arctic Beam. The beam may also claim Souls.
- Level 1: -8s Cooldown
- Level 2: +40 DPS
- Level 3: Fires 2 additional Arctic Beams toward enemies within 13m of the last target hit
- Frozen Shelter: Kelvin freezes the air around him, creating an impenetrable dome around himself. While in the dome, allies rapidly regenerate health and enemies are slowed. Objectives and Rejuvenator are frozen and invulnerable when under frozen shelter.
- Level 1: +40% Fire Rate Slow
- Level 2: -40s Cooldown
- Level 3: +70 Health Regen and now scales with Spirit Power
Best Kelvin Ability Point Order
Kelvin is the weakest in the early game when he doesn’t have his heals with his 1st ability. So, prioritize getting the Frost Grenade to level 2 early. Next, you need mobility on Kelvin, so unlock his Ice Path early and invest one point on it to get the extra 4m/s movement speed. Next, max his Arctic Beam, which is his main damage dealing and harassing ability.
After you have maxed his 3rd ability, invest two points on Ice Path to get it to level 2 and reduce its cooldown time. Next, max his grenades for the +175 extra damage, which, at this point in the game with the above items, will act like a mini-nuke.
Now, max your Ultimate, which will allow you to keep your team alive in the end-game while isolating enemies. Finally, max the Ice Path for the extra Spirit Power, skyrocketing your damage output when using your 3rd or 1st with it.
Remember to use Kelvin’s Ultimate as a way to secure kills or hold out objectives. The Frozen Shelter can freeze up walkers, guardians, and mid-boss, allowing your team the much-needed time to enter the fight.
So, that’s it. This is our Deadlock Kelvin build with his best items and correct ability order. We have received great results with this build, so hopefully, you will also have a great time using it. Try our Kelvin build and tell us in the comments how it worked for you while also suggesting any changes you may have in mind.
