Shiv is long past his glory days when he could take on multiple enemies alone for the entirety of the game and still come out on top. Thankfully, recent patches have helped him recover himself in the rankings, and he can still be a very strong character in the right hands. The key to victory with Shiv is a good mix of survivability, damage, and mobility, making sure you don’t get dominated in early games. Here is the best Deadlock Shiv build to help you become the rockstar assassin we all love in Deadlock.
Best Shiv Build Items in Deadlock
Note: This build is available in the Public Builds section of Deadlock. You can get it by searching ‘Beebom Shiv Build‘ (build id: 168345). 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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Shiv may be very tanky in the end game, but early on, that’s not the case. This is why the first item you need to pick is Extra Regen. This item is great for healing early and gives extra ammo in the early laning stage. Follow up with Rapid Rounds to increase the Fire Rate of Shiv’s gun, which is a major issue in the early game. This item also increases his move speed, making it a smart choice.
Next, pick Spirit Strike to maximize your melee damage early on in the game and get that sweet 80 Spirit Shield. Follow it up with Extra Health for more survivability.
After that, get Headshot Booster and Close Quarters to increase your Gun damage, allowing you to punish overextending enemies. Next, get Extra Stamina, Sprint Boots, and Mystic Reach for more mobility.
Best Core/Mid-game Items for Deadlock Shiv Build
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In mid-game, your main target is to pick on individual enemies and get kills. Start with Kinetic Dash to increase your mobility and Fire rate. Follow it up by upgrading to Enduring Speed for more mobility.
Now, get Decay, which will be Shiv’s core assassination item. Once you have Decay, start looking for individual enemies who are overextending. Gank them with Decay and get the kill quickly. Next, upgrade to Fortitude to increase your max health, as well as a way to regenerate your health quickly when out of combat.
1st Flex Slot: After that, get Burst Fire to increase your gun damage by a lot, allowing you to win most individual fights. With your increased fire rate, you will start dealing with a ton of close-up damage to enemies.
Follow it up with Hunter’s Aura by selling either Headshot Booster or Rapid Rounds. I personally prefer selling Headshot Booster, keeping the extra fire rate and sprint speed of the Rapid Rounds.
Next, get Siphon Bullets; this will be your Shiv’s first big power spike. Once you have Siphon Life, you can start aggressively taking on team fights. Follow up with Surge of Power, imbuing it to your 1st ability for extra mobility and damage, and then upgrade to Spirit Snatch to empower your melee attacks.
Make sure to land Normal Melees now, as it is harder to parry while still triggering the Spirit Snatch item.
Best Luxury/Late Game Items for Deadlock Shiv Build
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2nd Flex Slot: The first item you need in the late game is Frenzy. Get it in the 2nd Flex slot, or sell Rapid Rounds for it. Frenzy will give you a massive advantage in team fights, especially when you are low on health.
Next, upgrade to Point Blank, which will further increase your gun damage and give you Bullet Resistance and extra Stamina.
3rd and 4th Flex Slot: Get Improved Spirit Armor and then Improved Bullet Armor in the last two flex slots, increasing your survivability in the late game. If you don’t have slots, simply skip them for the other items on the order.
Upgrade to Improved Reach and Arcane Surge in the late game to further increase the range of your abilities, imbuing Reach on your 2nd ability. Now you can dash jump and use Killing Blow much more effectively on enemies with lower health.
Finally, get Colossus by selling any T1 weapon items left, giving you a massive advantage in end-game fights. Follow up with an upgrade to Superior Stamina to complete this Shiv Deadlock build.
Shiv Situational Items
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Shiv is very suspicious in early games, and having a bad start can ruin your entire game. That’s why you need situational items to help you in a pickle. First, Fleetfoot is an amazing item early on in the game over a Headshot booster to exit from outnumbered fights.
Healbane and Restorative Locket are also early mid-game for survivability and leveling the field with enemies with more souls. You can get either over Extra Health.
Torment Pulse is generally a good item for melee characters and also for farming. This Shiv build particularly doesn’t need it, but if you like this item, then you can pick it over Mystic Reach. Same with Boundless Spirit, or its components like Extra Spirit and Improved Spirit. Another item you can sell for this is Spirit Strike.
Spiritual Overflow is a great item for Shiv in the late game over Frenzy or Colossus. Pick it if you like using it more than the other late-game items in the build. Finally, Leech and Warp Stone are both great for survivability in fights.
Deadlock Shiv Build: Abilities and Unlock Order
Shiv is a very ability-heavy character, and you must know when to enter or exit fights with him. Here is an overview of all of Shiv’s abilities and in which Ability Point Order you must unlock them to dominate the game:
All Shiv Build Abilities
- Serrated Knives: Throw a knife that damages and bleeds an enemy. Each additional hit adds a stack and refreshes the bleed duration, causing the bleed to increase per stack.
- Level 1: +1 Charges
- Level 2: +2s Bleed Duration
- Level 3: +40 Damage and +5 Bleed DPS
- Slice and Dice: Perform a dash forward, damaging enemies along the path. Ultimate Unlock: While rage is full an echo of Shiv retraces the dash path after a short delay, damaging enemies again.
- Level 1: -3s Cooldown
- Level 2: +70 Damage
- Level 3: Reduce cooldown by 2s per enemy hero hit (1s for Non-Hero). Max -6s per Dash.
- Bloodletting: Take only a portion of incoming damage immediately and defer the rest to be taken over time. Activate to clear a portion of the deferred damage.
- Level 1: +6% Incoming Damage Deferred
- Level 2: -25s Cooldown
- Level 3: +25% Deferred Damage Cleared
- Killing Blow: Activate to leap towards an enemy hero and instantly kill them if their health is below the kill threshold, otherwise deal 200 damage to them. Passive: Damaging enemies fills you with rage. While at full rage, Shiv gains increased damage and special properties on his other abilities.
- Level 1: Gain +2 m/s move speed at full rage.
- Level 2: +6% Enemy Health Threshold and +8% Full Rage Bonus Damage
- Level 3: Finishing off an enemy with Killing Blow resets its cooldown.
Best Shiv Ability Point Order
Shiv can be built very differently based on his ability order. This build focuses on Slice and Dice and Killing Blow as the core abilities. First, unlock Serrated Knives to get a bit of range early on in the game. Serrated Knives can also be used to last hit Troopers and souls, so make sure to use it early on when reloading.
Next, unlock Slice and Dice and upgrade it to level 2 with the first three ability points you get to get that extra +70 damage early on in the game. Next, unlock Bloodletting and upgrade it to Level 1. This will let Shiv defer more damage, making him quite tanky in early to mid-game.
After that, upgrade the Killing Blow ability to level 2, increasing the enemy health threshold for the instant kill. Next, max Slice and Dice, making yourself ready to dive into team fights and slice through multiple enemies. Next, upgrade Killing Blow to max, allowing you to secure kills continuously in late to mid-game.
Then, focus on maxing Serrated Knives, which will give further damage spike in the late game, and finally, max Bloodletting at last.
So, that’s it. This is our Deadlock Shiv build with his best items and correct ability order. Shiv may have been nerfed heavily, but recent patches have brought him back into the limelight.
When playing Shiv, it’s best not to die early, instead focusing on getting the mid-core items as early as possible and only punishing overextending enemies. Late-game Shiv is very tanky, so don’t shy away from jumping into fights.
Try our Shiv build and tell us in the comments how it worked for you while also suggesting any changes you may have in mind.
