Deadlock Laning Guide: 5 Tips to Dominate Lanes

Whether you are a veteran of MOBA or brand new to the genre, you must remember that a good laning stage can make or break your progress. Well, that is the same in Deadlock. Dominating the game lanes can even make your enemies rage quit. Want to get that good? Then you need to understand lanes in Deadlock. So with that, let’s talk about laning in Deadlock and how to dominate them.

1. Ensure You Deliver the Killing Blow

The first thing you need to know about any MOBA game is that last-hitting lane minions are a key to success. In Deadlock, you need to be the one making the killing blow to get the full soul count. Not hitting the orbs will result in them getting shared with your laning partner. Before the 10-minute mark, you share 100% of the souls with your lane partner. You also completely lose that soul count if enemies deny that soul orb. So, you must also deny enemy soul orbs to gain an advantage over the enemies in the lane.

Once you hit the 10-minute mark and mid-boss spawns, you no longer gain any soul from last hitting the minions. The full soul count is adjusted inside the soul orbs. Moreover, if you do not hit the soul orbs, it will be shared with everyone on your team. So, always make sure to hit the soul orbs and deny the enemy.

2. Pick the Best Laning Heroes

Before you jump into Deadlock lanes, you must know that not all heroes are great at dominating them. While some are good at last hitting, others are more aggressive toward enemy heroes. If you want to win a laning phase in Deadlock, you must balance between farming and harassing enemy heroes.

In case you are still to find your favorite hero, I recommend you start with heroes like Infernus or Lady Geist. Both heroes come with a balanced potential to harass enemies while keeping your farming high. If you want to strictly farm in the lane, go with the best Wraith build and focus on your last hits.

3. Keep an Eye on Flag Minion

Another struggle you might face in Deadlock while laning is the amount of cheap damage that comes from enemies. As the game is also a shooter, it is easier to pinch each other in a lane. Luckily, you get one flag minion that occasionally heals you as long as it is alive. Keeping this minion alive and well will help you sustain more in the lane and sometimes can even let you counter-attack enemies when you are pushed.

Once multiple flag troopers are around, you will get significantly higher heal advantage. This is one of the best ways to heal in Deadlock. You must also kill the enemy flag minion first to have the healing battle advantage. If you kill the flag minion early, the enemies will have limited options to stay alive in the lane.

4. Do Not Overextend

It’s understandable to get cocky and keep pushing if you’re dominating the lane you’re pushing. However, we strongly suggest not doing it consistently. This is because two things can happen. The first thing is that enemies might get a chance to ambush you under their guardians for a comfortable hunt.

Furthermore, if you destroy the guardian, you are pushing inside the enemy half to farm the minions. This means the enemies will be at an advantage to pounce on you before you can run or retreat. That’s why we suggest you keep a balance between pushing and running unless you have enough items to confidently push down a walker to unlock Flex Slots.

5. Beware of Gank or Gank Other Lanes

This laning overpush also ties into gank. For those unaware, gank is a MOBA term that means going in another lane and ambushing down enemies with your teammates. This mostly happens when you’re playing aggressively and have less chance to run towards your guardians. However, as you can tell, this can be extremely dangerous.

One way of avoiding this is to have survivability items like Restorative Shots and Extra Regen to help you get out of these situations. Heroes like Wraith and Infernus are also good at keeping distance.

Conversely, you can also set up ganks if you are playing a rotation hero or you have already pushed down an enemy guardian in your lane. Heroes like Yamato or Shiv can be great at surprise ambushes. So, if you are good with them, you can run down other lanes from a surprise angle and annoy the enemies in the laning stage.

Best Deadlock Items for Laning

Laning can be way easier in Deadlock if you understand which items to pick early in the game. If you have these important items, you can easily dominate your lane and even tilt enemies into a rage. Given all the early items are only 500 souls each, it can boost your early hitting potential and sustainability. Here is a list of all the important items in Deadlock to dominate the lane stage:

• Headshot Booster: Deal additional damage when you shoot heads. Increases bullet shield that helps you stay alive longer.
• Hollow Point Ward: When you are above 60% health, you will deal additional damage. If you can stay near the healing minion or have healing abilities, this can benefit you with higher damage in the lane.
• Monster Rounds: If you are focusing last hits, grab Monster Rounds. This weapon item will give you +30% damage against the minions.
• Restorative Shot: In case you are struggling in the lane, you can get this item. Restorative Shot will heal you based on what target you hit every 6.2 seconds. This is great if you can get a random hit on your enemy every 6 seconds as it will heal you +40 HP.
• Extra Regen: If you are struggling with shooting down the minions or heroes while they rush you down, you must get Extra Regen to survive longer in the lane.
• Healing Rite: Healing Rite can be a great alternative vitality item for Extra Regen. Especially, if you also want to heal your teammate.

Once you dominate lanes in Deadlock, you can run back to your jungle phase. If you can master the lane in Deadlock, you can easily get souls fast as well. Have you tried these lane domination tips yet? Tell us your favorite laning hero in Deadlock in the comments below!