Riot Doesn't Understand the Problem with Deadlock

[@zarazkribblez]

Deadlock is not Killjoy or Cypher, not even Chamber, she's a more aggressive Sage, I think the trips were designed so they would NOT be used as flankwatch. She's supposed to be anti-dive, which is why her buff is aimed at affecting Raze and Jett over anything else. The real buff she needs, to make her like sage, is movable trips and a more consistent wall. Right now it's very inconsistent to use her wall, but if you could be consistent she could be a ranked type character.

[@starredd]

no bro shes just a worse veraion of sage 😂

[@untitledtitle503]

Finally, thank you. Someone else also knows Deadlock isn't a flank watcher

[@FINNISHORBEFINISHED]

Sage is also terrible, making her like sage will make her played a bit, though not by alot. The problem is that they can only slow pushes nothing else. wich makes them pretty useless on attack.

[@MrNiceGuy--]

In my opinion, just let gravnet stop you from shooting or make you inacurate. Also maybe make it so you still get caught in it if you go in the radius after the gravnet to work like a better slow orb

[@Ninekillaa]

Ok you might be cooking too much here, but I like the spirit lol

[@normalguy9219]

How about like a breach stun + sage slow orb if u got hit?

[@birdnuggetnuggies1718]

As a person who mainly uses deadlock, personally, i think they should make the trap trigger faster, before the buff i used the combo of sensors grav and counter push with teammates and after buff, it got stronger since more grav radius more gets caught, but sometimes if the teams are well coordinated they take advantage of the slow trigger and they just jump in jump out they still get caught by grav but not with trips making it hard to counter push since they are not disoriented by the sonic sensors.

[@Lemmestarve]

I think they're great changes but it's the sound sensors that need the changes. If anything I think she needs some kind of rework.

[@Ninekillaa]

You not wrong there

[@dooda9566]

whatever they change about her sensors in the future, i just hope they keep the sound aspect that made her special in the first place

[@maloryna]

Love the GravNet changes, it was most definitely her worst ability, it's actually great now and gives much more consistent info. If they just made her Barrier Mesh retrievable once per round, like Gekko's thrash, she could cover flank using her wall and then pick it up later to lock down site once you've taken the space. It would make her play more like a postplant sentinel and less like a first contact duelist due to her utility actually having value later in the round. I really hope they keep her Sound Sensors sound based because it's such a unique aspect of her which is really interesting to play around. Some other interesting suggestions I've seen for them is making it notify you when someone is in the radius but only stun when they make sound which would also be nice. I don't believe that she needs a rework and genuinely see potential in her kit if it would just receive some of the love that Cypher and KJ have gotten. Personally, I want the Sound Sensors to remain unchanged and rather get some quality of life changes such as being able to pick them up during the round, being able to place them from further away and becoming unbreakable once they've already been set off. Too many times have people been forced to trigger my sensor because of where I place them only to flick onto it, shoot it and flick back to me before I can swing off my sensor, which I'll admit is a bit of a skill issue on my end. These are just my suggestions for how they should change her. I suppose Ult is fine if they can eventually stop it from getting stuck on 2 pixels on the wall 👍

[@Ninekillaa]

Those are some interesting ideas for sure. But if the sonic sensors remain unchanged I see her as always just being a niche character working in only very specific situations

[@kinyacat5919]

I do hope her Sound sensor gets more insane in a future update, like, maybe having it impossible to destroy so either the enemies have to just avoid it or purposefully get stunned to not worry about being quiet walking around it in the future but have a risk of getting killed. It would be a pretty unique way to lock down a site and giving enemies a disadvantage in the defense side.

[@kinyacat5919]

it could also be pretty good to hold flank on attacker side if there's a situation where the enemy is forced to make noise and get stunned when they see a player that's guarding flank. Just an idea i hope Riot would add

[@mistyfaderia]

Or make it so it will trigger on the slightest enemy noise (sentinel setups like placing nanoswarms, cages, traps or util like reyna leer that makes a significant sound when it's used) and explodes slightly faster

[@mistyfaderia]

An example: Enemy killjoy will trigger the sensor if she throws her nanoswarms, alarmbot or turret

[@geonosi]

Deadlock is like a lifeguard at the Olympics, utterly useless

[@bandi642]

i would make that if you are in the sonic sensor area, it tells you enemy position and it activates when spund is trigered

[@deirasjankauskas3381]

Deadlock is a sentinel that forces rotates more so than any other sentinel due to being able to stall so long and give team enough time to rotate. The gravnet buff forces people to literally tell the number of people within a pretty big area since it forces the sound queue and if people spam the sounds they are seized for longer and not able to fight back or move for longer stalling longer. The sensor stuns punish any execute since its 2 breach stuns on demand that Gravnet wallbang with odin gives free kills. Gravnet with sova dart and an odin that can walling the wall is a lot stronger than normal dart. Gravnet is the best trap util since it has a sound queue can last forever and it forces the enemy to not be able to move to remove it then you wallbang them safely Raze nade, gravnet is better than any other combo. I'll wait.

[@Ninekillaa]

If you enjoy playing Deadlock in ranked, by all means keep playing her

[@joshford256]

Good take on Deadlock and all, but I'm kinda sad you didn't trust your Skye flash at 4:45 to clear that corner for you

[@ruta_VA]

great vid - it's really easy to highlight the issue that deadlock has, and one that i'm 100% sure that riot is aware of. however, because of riot's obsession with unique identities, i actually don't think they're ever gonna touch her sensors to be normal trips. they once said in an interview about deadlock's game design that they didn't want her to be a traditional sentinel, and i'm sure they're gonna stick by that. so we may never see an opportunity for this character to shine in pro or even ranked play as much as i'm sure she could've.

[@Ninekillaa]

I think you're 100% on point, Riot likes to stick to their design philosophies

[@StarvingVenom]

They said that they wanted Dlock to be a versatile Sentinel, so could she AT LEAST take her trips back?

[@El-ms8dl]

disagree with the problem with deadlock, not that making sensors trips would be bad, but moreso that making them trips would be infringing on the info sentinel role. just like how skye gathers so much info and has flashes and is a very meta agent in pro play, being able to consolidate both initiator roles, while its not like deadlock would be like skye,(cuz not like grav net and barrier mesh are super strong) she is very clearly not meant to be an info sentinel, but the barrier sentinel archetype, like sage. this also highlights, that sage is also not picked in pro play(in champions, only NAVI on bind picked sage, and lost the map), in pretty much the same situation as deadlock and is the same role. While sage is picked in ranked, its moreso because of her simplicity and familiarity(just like how reyna has high pick rate). In general the barrier sentinel isnt a desired role in a team composition. I think this is because, one, that sage and deadlock arent super effective at their job(barrier sentinel is supposed to prioritize the "lock down area" part of the sentinel job, with wall being the only form of "info" they have, while info sentinels are suppoed to prioritize the "watching flanks" part), and that other agents(mostly kj and viper) being able to do similar jobs but just better. I do have some ideas of reworks for deadlock, but my point is just that while giving deadlock reliable trips would be a buff, for the role deadlock was made for its not in the right direction, and for diversity in the sentinel role, it doesn't help at all. Imo, a good state for barrier sentinels would be a time where on maps where you dont pick an info sentinel, a barrier sentinel would be a good pick, and on some maps you may run a info and a barrier sentiel. Theres double controller meta, double initiator meta, double duelist meta(tho really just double dive duelists, the reyna/pheonix/iso isnt picked), but double sentinel doesnt really exist because no need for double info sentinel, and barrier sentinel doesnt really find any play. Good meta would be a meta where theres discussion for that final flex slot between all roles based on what you want.

[@testadmin]

My view on Deadlock is that her identity is supposed to be a trap operator, which is not how she functionally works; I think that I'm not alone in feeling this disconnect between how Riot expects her to play vs player expectation based on her kit. Her nade is uncomfortable to throw and often requires over-committing to get the angle you want to throw it. Her sensors are easily countered, and cover very few chokepoints as effectively as other utility can. There's a lot of suggestions I can rattle off for each of her utilities, but my main problem with her is that at her core, her kit is unfun to go against. Given enough tweaks and buffs, I can't help but feel she'd be even more unfun to go against. I am not a fan of agents having abilities that have no interaction or counterplay, and Deadlock's entire kit is unfun to go against when you're already losing. I don't think there's a single person who gets ulted by Deadlock, especially when they're the last alive, and thinks "This is a fun experience."

[@Ninekillaa]

I see what you mean but I disagree with you at the end. She is not near the top when it comes to agents "unfun to play against". I much rather play vs deadlock than a good cypher or KJ everyday of the week. Yeah of course her ult is unfun but that makes sense, what ult do you have fun getting hit by?

[@testadmin]

@@Ninekillaa Didn't mean to imply she's the most or even a top unfun agent to go against. Just that she is unfun to fight. As for ults I do have fun against, I one trick neon so I get a different experience against some ults; Neon's speed and slides offer fun play-counterplay options against people like Raze, Sova, and Gekko. I think in general it's fun to have ults that require you to plan around them, such as a Brimstone or KJ ult being online, but can be annoying when you fail to plan around them successfully. Ultimates that give players a choice I think are the most fun; Harbor ult requires you to keep moving, so you have to either clear its AOE or try to contest an enemy push while avoiding the stuns. I just like more interactivity in general.

[@orion1157]

Great breakdown for a garbo character update

[@kinyacat5919]

6:40 Killjoy?

[@renlog7755]

At the end u said killjoy lmao

[@Ninekillaa]

Too lost in thought sometimes

[@geonosi]

Mans was teasing his next agent guide

[@ShadyProductionsMC]

She is no where near as interesting to play or play against. I fear they will eventually buff her up but she will just make the game less fun if played more. She needs something fundamentally more interesting to play around

[@Ninekillaa]

I would honestly just like too see the sonic sensor changed and see how the playerbase reacts, how much more often would she get picked or played.