Every Deadlock Character’s REAL Role (Updated 5 Role Guide)

Deadlock Role Guide

Deadlock’s roles are flexible: heroes can be built and played in different ways. This guide groups them into three main farm-priority roles—carry, off-carry, and support—and adds three functional subroles: initiator/catch, tank, and hybrid. Teams generally benefit from having at least one carry, support, and tank.

1. Carries — Farm First, Then Become a Major Damage Threat

Carries need more souls, items, or ability upgrades to reach their strongest point. Their job is to farm efficiently and safely, then contribute heavily in mid-to-late-game fights.

Heroes: Infernus, Lady Geist, Mirage, Rat King, Seven, Ventor, Victor, Warden, and Wraith.

• Prioritize farming, especially on safer side lanes, and avoid unnecessary early fights.
• If you’re playing another role, don’t take farm away from your team’s carry.
• Join fights after reaching a meaningful power spike—often a major item or around 20–25k net worth. At 30k+, carries should generally look to fight rather than endlessly farm.
• Once you’re online, don’t keep farming while your team fights without you. Switch from building power to using it.
• Stay alive: dying delays your impact and can give opponents a large soul payout.
• When possible, farm on the opposite side of the map from a developing fight. Be especially cautious when enemies are missing.
• There are exceptions. For example, Seven or Rat King may join a nearby fight if their powerful ultimate is ready.

2. Off-Carries — Use an Earlier Power Spike to Pressure the Map

Off-carries often become influential earlier than hard carries—sometimes during lane, and commonly around 12–15k net worth. Use that timing to fight and create advantages rather than passively farming into the late game.

Heroes: Apollo, Celeste, Calico, Mina, Pocket, Yamato, Grey Talon, Vindicta, Lash, Viper, and Violet.

• Win lane when possible, then pressure other lanes, join fights, secure kills, and take objectives.
• Farm waves or jungle when there’s no useful play available. Stealing enemy farm can also build an advantage.
• Fight at good timings, but don’t confuse aggression with charging into bad fights.
• Avoid two common mistakes: farming through your hero’s strongest window or fighting constantly without a plan.

3. Supports — Bring Utility Without Needing Much Farm

Supports can have a major impact through healing, disruption, saves, or powerful abilities—even when they’re among the poorest players on the team.

Heroes: Doorman, Dynamo, Kelvin, Mo & Krill, Nurse Harrow, Paige, Rem, Sinclair, and Solomon.

• Push lanes, help win team fights, save teammates, and look for useful engagements.
• Don’t spend the whole game farming. Farm only when you’re significantly behind or picking up resources nobody else can use.
• Avoid taking lane or nearby jungle farm from a carry who needs it.
• Good positioning, map awareness, and effective use of cooldowns are central to the role.
• Supports are often vulnerable alone, so coordinate with teammates rather than taking isolated 1v1s.
• If the team is inactive, communicate and help create a play instead of simply farming alongside everyone else.

4. Initiators / Catch Heroes — Find a Target and Start the Fight

These heroes can catch an isolated or vulnerable opponent with tools such as a hook, lasso, swap, or sleep dart. A successful pick can give the team a major advantage in a mid- or late-game fight.

Heroes: Haze, Holliday, Paradox, and Bebop.

• Rotate with purpose and avoid revealing your position unnecessarily. The threat of a catch can force enemies to play cautiously.
• Look for isolated targets and start fights on your team’s terms.
• Haze can deal strong damage, but her catch potential is a key strength. She’s squishy and shouldn’t be treated as a conventional hard carry.
• Don’t disappear into the jungle to farm instead of using your hero’s pick potential.

5. Tanks / Frontliners — Absorb Pressure and Create Space

Tanks have durability, sustain, or defensive abilities that let them absorb enemy pressure and disrupt threats to their team.

Heroes: Abrams, Baba, Billy, Shiv, and Silver. Yamato can also fit this role.

• Take the frontline and absorb damage, especially from enemy carries and off-carries.
• Be present for fights, particularly Rift fights and Mid Boss contests.
• If you’re the team’s only tank, playing too cautiously can leave your damage dealers exposed. Engage and create an opening, while recognizing that the role may involve taking substantial damage or even dying.
• Tanks need some farm for survivability, but split-pushing is usually less valuable than joining a major fight.

6. Hybrids — Adapt to What the Team Lacks

Hybrid heroes can contribute with low income or scale when given more farm. Their job is to adjust their build and playstyle to the team composition.

Heroes: Graves, Drifter, Ivy, McGinnis, and Viscous.

• Decide early whether the team needs a support, a damage dealer, a tankier presence, or split-push pressure.
• Match your build to your role. A support-oriented build should generally play for utility rather than greedily farming, while a carry-oriented build needs the farm to deliver damage.
• Don’t stick to a preferred build if the team composition calls for something else. For example, avoid taking carry-level farm when the team already has damage dealers, or playing support when the team desperately needs damage.

Core Takeaways

• Allocate farm roughly in this order: carries first, off-carries next, supports last, while adapting to the match.
• Push lanes when useful, but prioritize each hero’s strongest timing and function.
• When you’re ahead, your life is valuable: protect your lead and avoid needless deaths. When behind, calculated risks may be necessary.
• Communicate about farm, power spikes, and upcoming fights. The role system is a guide, not a rigid rulebook.

Gamers and sources mentioned: Metro of Metro Deadlock; Night Shift games (as an example of teams using catch heroes); Overwatch (as a comparison for the tank role).