Best Deadlock Grey Talon build: Abilities & Items

Grey Talon is an archer in Valve’s brand-new game Deadlock and if you’re looking to play him, you’ll need in-depth knowledge of his abilities, and item build throughout the course of a match.

Grey Talon is a ranged unit that can dish out massive amounts of damage either with short bursts or sustained DPS. Additionally, his Ultimate can travel across the map, making it impactful even in long distances.

However, he is quite squishy and needs to be protected by the team. Grey Talon is also heavily dependent on stacking up early leads as he has no impact if put behind by the opposition team.

If you are one of those players who like playing risky and a fan of characters like Drow Ranger from Dota 2 or Ashe from League of Legends, Grey Talon is your hero in Deadlock.

Best abilities to use on Grey Talon

In terms of the best build build path, leveling up Charged Shot is a priority as that is your main source of damage. At higher levels, you’ll be able to spam it, which makes it easier to duel with enemies. The Immobilizing Trap is important, but not something you should focus on too much.

You’ll have to be smart in judging enemy movements and place the traps accordingly. Rain of Arrows is quite good as it helps you deal aerial damage which makes Grey Talon annoying to deal with. In the air, you can also use Charged Shot to further improve on the Rain of Arrows ability.

Finally, Guided Owl is worth leveling as it increases the base damage of the ability and provides cooldown reduction. However, you’ll have to be smart when using this ability as the Owl needs to be guided to a vantage point to make the most out of it, and you are vulnerable when controlling it.

Deadlock Grey Talon abilities explained

If you are interested in Grey Talon and looking to him, here’s an in-depth discussion on his kit:

• 1. Charged Shot
  • Charge up a powerful shot that pierces through enemies.
  • Hold [1] or [LMC] to hold the shot.
    • Level 1: +1 Charge
    • Level 2: +70 damage
    • Level 3: Damage scaling increased and Charge Delay reduced by 3 seconds
• 2. Rain of Arrows
  • Launches you high in the air, allowing you to glide slowly.
  • While airborne, you gain Weapon Damage and multishot on your weapon.
  • Press [SPACE] to cancel the glide.
    • Level 1: 15 seconds cooldown reduction
    • Level 2: When airborne, weapon damage is increased by +7, and weapon damage applies 40% movement slow for 1.5 seconds.
    • Level 3: When airborne, bullet lifesteal is increased by +50% and spirit lifesteal by +50%.
• 3. Immobilizing Traps
  • Throw out a trap that begins to arm itself.
  • Once armed, the trap will trigger when an enemy enters its radius, immobilizing them.
    • Level 1: Cooldown Reduced by 20%.
    • Level 2: Immobilize duration increased by 1 second.
    • Level 3: Grey Talon will deal 30% more bullet damage to enemies when they are hit by Immobilizing Trap for 10 seconds.
• 4. Guided Owl
  • After 1.5 seconds cast time, launch a spirit owl that you control and which explodes on impact, damaging and stunning enemies.
  • Hold [LMC] to accelerate the owl. Press [SPACE] to release control.
  • Gain permanent Spirit Power for each enemy killed with Guided Owl.
    • Level 1: +100 Damage.
    • Level 2: Cooldown reduced by 50 seconds.
    • Level 3: After hitting an enemy, anyone below 22% health is killed.

Best build on Grey Talon: Deadlock items explained

The item build for Grey Talon will be divided into four sections, namely the early game, mid game, late game, and situational items.

The early game primarily involves helping you with gathering Souls while also dealing whatever damage you can to enemies. The mid and late game items will focus on maximizing Grey Talon’s potential to make him a terrifying archer on the battlefield.

As always, builds are subject to change and you can make alterations depending on your playstyle. This is because, you can always stack up a large amount of Souls in the early game, which will help you go for costly purchases.

Early Game Items

High-Velocity Mag is extremely potent in the early game as the 30% bullet velocity and 14% weapon damage help with early dueling. If you run Monster Rounds you will receive 35% weapon damage against NPCs which helps with Soul gathering. Additionally, the health regen and bonus health help with survivability.

Extra Stamina comes in handy as well since it provides stamina recovery and also 7% fire rate, thereby helping with early duels and chasing or running away from enemies. Healing Rite is exceptionally good as it provides 45 Bonus Health while also granting regen and sprint speed to a target. This ability helps Deadlock a lot since he is squishy and needs to sustain himself in fights.

Extra Regen is not very different as it provides 25 bonus health in addition to 8% ammo. Finally, if you want to improve your Charged Shot, the Extra Charge item helps you massively in the early game. You get one bonus ability charge and also a 10% cooldown reduction for charged shots. Extra Spirit is also quite good as it provides bonus health, spirit power, and health regen.

Lastly, Mystic Burst is a phenomenal early-game item because of the 40 spirit shield health and 6% weapon damage, thereby providing sustainability and DPS.

Mid Game Items

In the mid game you want to move to higher damage and Mystic Shot is a powerful choice for that. This item provides 12% weapon damage and 4 Spirit Power. You also gain 65 spirit damage from this item’s passive. Soul Shredder Bullets is also quite good as it provides 6% weapon damage, but also applies a debuff on the enemy that amplifies spirit damage and provides spirit lifesteal.

Enduring Speed is basically your sprint boots that movement speed, sprint speed, bonus health, and health regen. It also reduces any movement slow from enemies. If you want some extra stamina, you can go for Superior Stamina as it provides stamina, stamina recovery, fire rate, and spirit power. Additionally, it increases the number of air dashes or air jumps you can perform which synergizes with Grey Talon’s Rain of Arrows ability.

If you are dying too much, Enchanter’s Barrier is a good item as it provides 300 spirit shield health and you also gain bonus spirit power and cooldown reduction. It is a good survivability option for just 1250 Souls.

If you are looking to further improve the Charged Shot ability, you can go for the Rapid Charge item as it provides bonus ability charges and a 25% charged ability cooldown reduction. In the mid-game, you want your abilities to recharge faster, which you can do with the Improved Cooldown item. With this, you gain a 16% cooldown reduction and 1.5% health regen.

Finally, you can go for the Improved Burst item which gives 100 Spirit Shield health and 8% weapon damage. Additionally, this item has a passive where your abilities will deal bonus spirit damage if they deal 125 damage or more with a single shot.

Late Game/Luxury

The late game is all about pushing Grey Talon to his limits and one of the best items for that is Spiritual Overflow. This item provides a 20% fire rate, 15% cooldown reduction, and 10 spirit lifesteal. Additionally, you gain bonus spirit power when you charge up your bullets on enemy heroes.

You can also go for Crippling Headshot as this item provides 20% weapon damage, 10% bullet lifesteal, 10% spirit lifesteal, and headshots will reduce the bullet and spirit resistance of targets.

In terms of survivability, go for Leech, which grants 35% spirit lifesteal, 35% bullet lifesteal, 175 bonus health, spirit power, and weapon damage.

Veil Walker is also a pretty good item as it provides 200 bullet shield health, 200 spirit shield health, 12% ammo, 10% weapon damage, and if you walk through the cosmic veil, it will provide stealth, increased movement speed, restore bullet and spirit shields, and also grant additional fire rate.

Fortitude is an exceptional item for vitality as it provides 275 bonus health and you can 4% health regen after not taking damage for 11 seconds. Additionally, if your health is above 75%, you can bonus weapon damage and movement speed.

Boundless Spirit is quite good on Grey Talon as it provides raw stats in the name of 60 spirit power, 25% weapon damage, 300 bonus health, and 15 health regen.

If you’re looking to get a little fancy, Mystic Reverb is the item for you as apart from spirit lifesteal, spirit regen, and ability range, it can be imbued on an ability. This will lead to a slow in a radius around the target and deal an additional percentage of the damage on the target to surrounding enemies.

The Superior Cooldown item helps with a 32% imbued ability cooldown, 24% non-imbued ability cooldown, and 4 health regen which will allow you to spam your abilities. Lastly, Surge of Power is the icing on the cake as apart from 75 bonus health you can imbue an ability to spirit power which in turn provides bonus movement speed.

Situational Items

These are the items you can go for depending on the state of the match:

• Warp Stone: This item will allow you to teleport which comes in handy to reposition yourself in fights. It also provides 20% weapon damage and spirit power.
• Heroic Aura: This is more of a support item as it improves the fire rate of minions and nearby allies and also provides them with movement speed. It is handy in the late game when you will be sticking with your team to engage in fights.
• Healbane: This is an anti-heal item as when you deal spirit damage it inflicts enemies with healing reduction. Additionally, if the enemy hero dies, you gain a large amount of healing. This item is good against teams who are stacking healing items a bit too much.
• Divine Barrier: This item can be used on both allies as well as yourself depending on the need. Upon use, it will provide a bullet shield, spirit shield, and movement speed in addition to 75 health and 8% ability range.
• Debuff Remover: This item comes in handy if the enemy team is stacking debuffs on you as it will reduce the duration of all negative effects and purge all negative effects upon activation.
• Shadow Weave: This item will help you sneak around enemies and flank them if needed. If you want to get behind the enemy lines to deal damage, you can buy it as you will become invisible upon activating it. However, if you take damage, deal damage or use any ability, the stealth will be broken.
• Echo Shard: If you are looking to spam your abilities, go for this item as it resets the cooldown of any non Ultimate ability.
• Ethereal Shift: This item comes in handy if you get ambushed by the enemies. It is because, upon using, you become untargetable and invincible for a short duration. However, you can’t move or perform any actions during this duration, which puts you at the mercy of your team.
• Slowing Hex: If you are struggling to slow or catch an enemy, Slowing Hex is your item. Upon activating it will slow an enemy and silence all kinds of movement items and abilities.
• Magic Carpet: This is a good item if you are looking to take position as Grey Talon before a fight breaks out. Upon activating, you will summon a carpet and fly while gaining bullet and spirit shields. However, if you use any ability, the carpet will disappear.

That’s everything you need to know to get started with Grey Talon! If you’re curious to see how he stacks up to other characters, check out our tier list, and build guides for Seven, Shiv, Pocket, and Warden.