Best Deadlock Ivy build: Abilities & Items

Ivy, the sentient gargoyle, stands out in Deadlock with her impressive party trick: she swoops in to rescue teammates in danger and carries them to safety. Here’s how to make the most of her abilities.

Even though Deadlock emphasizes gunplay, heroes like Ivy with powerful abilities can dominate the battlefield. Her skills and passives make her a formidable force. Master Ivy’s playstyle, and you’ll quickly become an invaluable asset to your team – there’s a reason why players call her “best girl.”

If you’re ready to adopt a unique, team-centric playstyle, dive into Ivy’s arsenal of deadly abilities and show everyone just how fearsome a gargoyle can be.

Best abilities to use on Ivy

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The best Ability Point order for Ivy in Deadlock begins with Kudzu Bomb, an ability you’ll be using quite a lot to deal AoE damage. Then, unlock Stone Form to keep yourself alive and keep dive heroes like Abrams from running you down. The heal is nice, too.

The remaining two abilities, Watcher’s Covenant and Airdrop, should be your next priority. However, as soon as you get more ability points, max out Stone Form to boost your damage and health restoration.

Watcher’s Covenant should also be a skill you try to max out as soon as possible to become more mobile and get another tether for a third team member.

After maxing out Watcher’s Covenant, focus on Air Drop to expand your explode radius and deal widespread AoE damage to enemies. Level 3 is the real winner, since it lets you completely Silence enemy heroes and their abilities.

Deadlock Ivy abilities explained

If you aren’t familiar with Ivy’s kit and what she can do in Deadlock, here’s a quick rundown:

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• Kudzu Bomb
  • Summon a patch of choking vines that damages and slows enemies in its radius.
    • Level 1: Get one extra charge.
    • Level 2: Lasts for two more seconds.
    • Level 3: Deals 60 more damage per second.
• Watcher’s Covenant
  • Gain bonuses and automatically connect with a nearby ally to share them. Healing is replicated among all those connected. Connection requires line of sight. Press [2] to Lock on to a target.
    • Level 1: Boosts Fire Rate by 10%.
    • Level 2: Grants 2m/s movement bonus.
    • Level 3: Adds one extra Tether Count.
• Stone Form
  • Turn yourself into impervious stone and smash into the ground, stunning and damaging enemies nearby. Heals you for a percentage of your max health. You have some air control before falling.
    • Level 1: Reduces cooldown by 20 seconds.
    • Level 2: Boosts damage by 80 and stuns for 0.5 seconds.
    • Level 3: Restores plus 20% of your max health.
• Air Drop
  • Take flight with an ally or a bomb. Drop your ally or bomb to cause a large explosion that causes movement slow. Ivy and ally gain a bullet shield when flying ends. While lifted, your ally gains bullet resist but cannot attack and deals -50% damage. Air Drop has faster cast time when targeting an ally.
    • Level 1: Reduces Bullet Resist on enemies by 20% for 12 seconds.
    • Level 2: Boosts Bullet Shield by 300 and expands Explode Radius by 5 meters.
    • Level 3: Applies Silence on enemies hit for 4.5 seconds.

Best build on Ivy: Deadlock items explained

We’ve got items split into four categories – Early Game, Mid Game, Late Game/Luxury, and Situational.

The first three will clue you in on what to grab at each stage, but if you’re ahead, feel free to splurge on those Late Game goodies early. Situational items are your secret weapons for dealing with pesky mechanics.

Here’s what you need to buy to stack the odds in your favor and make victory look easy with Ivy in Deadlock:

Early Game items

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Healing Rite is practically a giveaway, so you can snag it and upgrade it into Rescue Beam later if you want to focus on that support playstyle.. And if you’re struggling, Extra Regen is there to give you a little help.

Ivy’s gun hits hard with its impressive fire rate and clip size. If you upgrade her with Monster Rounds, Basic Magazine, and Active Reload, you’ll be ready to unleash a barrage of bullets on your enemies at any moment.

Mid Game items

After the Siphon Bullets nerfs on the August 29 patch, you’re best off rushing Tesla Bullets right into Intensifying Magazine. This power spike is much smoother and requires less souls to get off the ground. Taking Siphon Bullets is still viable, it’s just not a must-have item anymore.

There are a few Vitality items you should pick up to make sure you recover health and stamina, like Extra Stamina, Health Nova, and Bullet Lifesteal. Try and wait until you’ve got your tether on an ally before you use that Nova to share the healing.

With Slowing Bullets and Enduring Speed, you’ll be the fastest hero around while your enemies are left crawling in agony. Enduring Speed’s slow reduction is also great against heroes like Kelvin.

Late Game/Luxury

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To make sure Ivy deals as much damage as possible in short bursts, purchase Lucky Shot and Crippling Headshot. This increases her magazine size by 30% and weapon damage by 20%. Lucky Shot also starts working toward a lifesteal build, which is then complemented with Vampiric Burst if you get super far into the late game.

Your mid-late game investments focus primarily on health, though. Improved Bullet Armor and Improved Spirit Armor make Ivy a bit more tanky, while Leech and Soul Rebirth focus on recovery. Take Echo Shard if you’re getting dived a lot to get two uses out of your Stone Form, healing yourself for 60% of your max HP in a short time.

Situational items

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Here are the best situational items for Ivy in Deadlock:

• Fleetfoot: With extra max stamina and increased sliding distance, Ivy can move further and faster on the battlefield. Plus, she won’t slow down while shooting, giving her an edge in mobility.
• Warp Stone: Ivy gets a 20% boost to weapon damage and an 8-point increase in Spirit Power. She can also teleport in the direction she’s facing and gain temporary bullet damage resistance
• Silencer: For the next 4 seconds, Ivy’s bullets can silence enemies, stopping them from using any abilities. This gives her a huge advantage in fights by shutting down opponents’ powers and making them easy targets.
• Divine Barrier: Ivy is a team player, so this item allows her to help her rescued teammates get out of sticky situations. Can also be used on yourself.
• Rescue Beam: This item heals a team member as well as yourself while the member is pulled toward you. It’s great for saving someone in danger, but not a necessary pickup by any means. Great for pulling teammates out of something like Dynamo’s ult.
• Unstoppable, Reactive Barrier, and Debuff Remover: When debuffs get you down, these are the items to use. Reactive Barrier in particular is underrated, and is a great choice if you’re having a hard time keeping track of active items.
• Decay: Ivy’s attack reduces the healing the target receives and deals damage over time based on a percentage of the target’s current health.
• Curse, Knockdown, Silence Glyph, and Slowing Hex: Playing Ivy is all about hosing down the enemy and making it easy for allies to do the same. With these items, you can make sure other mobile heroes stay put while you dish out damage. Prioritize Curse and Knockdown later against enemies like Seven who have to be interrupted. Slowing Hex and Silence Glyph are better buys early on.
• Ethereal Shift: If you don’t mind standing still for a while, this item gives you invisibility and makes you untargetable.
• Withering Whip: When the opponent is too aggressive, use Withering Whip to reduce their fire rate and resistance. Great for taking trades against carries.

That’s all you need to start winning with Ivy in Deadlock! Don’t worry if you lose a few matches at first. Keep practicing, and you’ll get the hang of it. Make sure you get a hang of the game’s core mechanics, like runes and souls.

If Ivy isn’t your style, no worries. You can check out our Deadlock character tier list to see your other options.