Every major Deadlock update noticeably reshuffles the balance of power. Valve regularly tweaks item stats, ability cooldowns, and soul costs, and these seemingly small numbers change which heroes dominate matches. Let's look at how the meta forms after a patch, who is rising, who is slipping, and why any tier list should be treated with caution.

Why the meta shifts

A hero's strength in Deadlock rarely depends on their abilities alone. What matters far more is how well they pair with the current items from the Weapon, Vitality, and Spirit trees. When a key item — say a damage amplifier or spirit resistance — gets more or less expensive, whole hero archetypes change their place in the hierarchy. That is why experienced players read the item changes first and only then the tweaks to individual characters.

Who is rising

After patches that buff auto-attacks and the Weapon tree, gun carries usually climb. Haze is the classic example: her passive Fixation ramps damage with every landed bullet, while Smoke Bomb lets her farm safely and re-enter fights. Heroes who convert early map control into a soul lead rise alongside her. Bruisers like Abrams also benefit when survivability is buffed: their durability in close combat lets them press the lane longer and initiate fights first. Watch heroes with flexible builds too: the more viable Weapon and Spirit paths a character has, the more resistant they are to targeted nerfs and the more often they land near the top of the lists.

Who is slipping

When Valve trims spirit damage or raises the price of the relevant items, burst-reliant caster heroes suffer. Characters who lean on a single combo to secure a kill — for example, control-plus-burst pairings — lose reliability if the enemy team can buy resistance more cheaply. Narrow, specialized heroes who need a specific item at a specific moment also drop: any price hike breaks their timings. Keep indirect nerfs in mind as well: buffing counter-items like bullet armor or debuff cleanses hurts the heroes those items are bought against, even when their abilities are left untouched.

Tier lists: how to read them

A tier list is a snapshot of average win rate, not a verdict. A hero's high spot in an S/A/B list often only means they are easier to learn or more forgiving of mistakes, not that their ceiling is higher in skilled hands. At a high level of play, item timings, lane control, and team coordination decide games, so a mid-list character can outplay the "top" picks with a capable pilot. Use tier lists as a drafting guide, not a replacement for understanding matchups.

The key skill in a shifting meta is not memorizing other people's lists but tracking which items got pricier or cheaper yourself and judging which archetypes benefit. Then every new patch becomes not a source of stress but a chance to be the first to find a strong yet underrated combination.