Valve’s nerf-happy new Deadlock update makes it harder to turn games around
A new Deadlock update is here, and while it’s still not the major content drop that we’ve been waiting for, it’s likely to pretty dramatically shake up matches in the meantime. Valve has already said not to expect the next overhaul until “late September” at least, but rather than leaving the meta to stagnate, it instead dropped a big list of Deadlock patch notes filled with quite a few impactful changes to items, heroes, and core game mechanics. If you’re a big Celeste, Lash, or Warden player, you might want to sit down for this one.
To start with, comeback mechanics have been nerfed slightly. Valve has always been a little coy on the exact values Deadlock uses to calculate how much to help out the team that’s behind, but it appears to be taking precautions against players gaming the economy of the MOBA to their advantage. Until now, you’ve been handed a small count of bonus souls from both hero kill and Unstable Rift bounties if you’re behind “even a very slight amount in net worth.” That’s been removed, and the overall value of comeback bounties across the board has been lowered in addition to that.
To prevent teams from carefully funneling all their souls into one carry hero while staying technically ‘behind,’ if a player is on the losing side but still personally above the opponents’ average net worth, 70% of the comeback souls they earn will instead be handed to the poorest two players on their team, spreading the funds more evenly. Alongside all this, the max comeback resist bonus provided by Unstable Rift objectives has been changed from 35% to a scaling 10% + 1% per minute, meaning the first will be around 20%, with an upper cap of 40%.
Elsewhere in the economy, the bounty for Guardians has been boosted by 10%, and for Walkers by 5%, making pushing objectives more valuable, especially taking those nerfed comeback payouts into account. The share amount earned by nearby heroes for objective bounties has been reduced from 30% to 25%, which will again make it harder to push all your souls into one or two team members. The initial spawn and respawn timers for underground tunnels breakables have been extended from three to five minutes – sorry to tunnel farmers like Calico, Rem, and Mo.
On the mechanics side, parrying during a dash will now cancel your movement momentum, stopping you from safely running away. Using a parry pauses your reload, while getting stunned no longer restarts your entire reload but just pauses it instead. Valve has cut the effect of all movement slows in the game by 20%, and all ground dash slows by 10%, but slow effects now also apply 35% of their reduction to air drag, which will make them more effective at disrupting high-flying heroes like Celeste.
Both dashes and light melees will no longer pause your gun’s cycle time (the gap between shots) – this applies across the board, but you’ll notice it most on heroes with slower-firing weapons such as Silver or Abrams. Rounding out the general adjustments, the respawn time at the 20-minute mark specifically has been extended by three seconds, which will likely help ensure Midboss completions go more smoothly if you pull off a team wipe.
Beyond that, the rest of the patch notes dig into a heavy list of item and hero balance changes. Keep watch for notable nerfs to items that generate souls, including Trophy Collector and Golden Goose Egg. The Egg now also counts towards your character’s net worth for comeback calculations, to avoid some of the recent shenanigans we’ve seen, and its damage penalty has gone up from 10% to 15%. Plated Armor gets a lot more consistent thanks to a bug fix ensuring it works against several notable sources of spirit damage that weren’t being blocked correctly.
Other key item nerfs land on Spiritual Overflow, Veil Walker, Restorative Locket, and Mercurial Magnum, while the likes of Lifestrike, Leech, Shadow Weave, Ballistic Enchantment, and Focus Lens see buffs. Decay now deals less damage per second but lasts longer, which will give it better utility thanks to the 50% healing reduction it applies.
Moving into heroes, I’ll work through in alphabetical order for simplicity. Abrams slips by with just some minor tweaks to tier-three skill upgrades, but ongoing meta mischief-maker Celeste is hit with nerfs across her entire kit. Combine that with the extra air drag applied from slow effects, and she’ll likely be a lot easier to handle than before. Graves gets a small increase to her health per boon, while Haze’s Fixation gets more damage ramp-up potential.
Holliday players will be happy about more health per boon, additional bullet resistance reduction on tier-two Crackshot, and a longer Lasso extension from Bounce Pads. Ivy’s Stone Form gets some slight reduction in radius and healing, while the health regen on Kelvin’s Frozen Shelter now scales with spirit power. Lady Geist benefits from a pair of tier-three buffs on both Life Drain and Essence Bomb.
Jacob Lash might be an asshole, but he’s suffering more than ever today. His gun falloff range has been made even shorter at both initial and max distances, and a small improvement to tier-three Ground Strike will struggle to compensate for nerfs to both Grapple and Flog. Paige will be feeling a lot better, with buffs to both Captivating Read and the scaling of her heavy melee, along with improved collision on Rallying Charge.
Paradox’s Kinetic Carbine now starts at a much lower damage multiplier, making it a lot worse if you fire it without charging. Rem’s Lil Helpers gain a targeting UI when you’re using instant cast mode, and you can no longer send multiple to a single target (which wasn’t useful anyway). Shiv gets more damage on his alt-fire, and his Serrated Knives now deal a bonus percentage of current HP as damage when at full rage, instead of ricocheting.
As a Silver fan, I’m feeling pretty pleased – she gets more health per boon, faster sprint speed, and both her Boot Kick and Entangling Bola will now only target heroes, meaning you won’t hit troopers by accident. Additionally, the Bola increases gravity and interrupts flying abilities. Venator’s Ira Domini can now be used with both Split Shot and Ricochet. Viscous suffers from small nerfs to Splatter, The Cube, and Puddle Punch, as well as slower damage growth on his alt-fire, but his Goo Ball does gain a little tier-three spirit scaling.
Vyper’s Slither Barrier gets a duration nerf, while Petrifying Bola’s cooldown is increased, but she’s got off lightly compared to Warden. His Alchemical Flask is hit with a 30% reduction to range and projectile speed, making it much harder to land consistently. Combine that with reduced bullet damage per boon, lower fire rate spirit scaling, and a double nerf on tier-three Willpower, and he’s going to struggle to stay relevant in the coming weeks.
Wraith will also be rather sad. Card Trick sees nerfs to the Heart heal effect, Diamond resist reduction, and slow from Clubs. She does at least benefit from slight gains to spirit damage scaling on Full Auto, and improvements to stop Project Mind erroneously getting caught on corners. Rounding us out is Yamato, who is handed small buffs to her light melee scaling on Flying Slash, and her heal spirit scaling for tier-three Crimson Slash.
This Deadlock update is live now. There’s still no word on exactly when that next big overhaul is due beyond the tentative “late September” estimate we got previously, but having so many changes here makes it feel like we’ll be waiting at least a couple more weeks for a full rollout. Don’t put it past Valve to surprise us, though.