Best Deadlock Lash build: Abilities & Items

Lash’s simple kit and gameplay loop make him incredibly easy to pick up, but mastering the Deadlock hero requires excellent map awareness and knowledge of his best/worst match-ups. Here’s everything you need to know about building him, including which items to shoot for right out of the gate.

Aggression and proactive play are key to a successful Lash. The absolute best method of building the mustachioed nuisance for late game is by speccing into an assassin archetype, but to get there, you’re going to need bulk and sustain.

Here’s the best build for Lash in Deadlock.

Best Lash abilities in Deadlock

Below you can find the order in which it’s best to upgrade your abilities:

Lash’s core abilities come with high Spirit Damage and modest cooldowns straight out of the box. Flog and Ground Pound will be your bread and butter during the laning phase, allowing you to dominate farm before pivoting into being a map-wide nuisance into the mid and late game.

Later on, you’ll want to be pairing Ground Pound with Grapple. The latter enables Lash to tether friendly and hostile targets and propel skyward towards them, and that extra point in it early for the bonus cooldown is essential.

Using Ground Pound immediately after a Grapple is the preferred method of starting an engagement, whether that’s to support a teammate or ambush an unsuspecting enemy hero. Doing this from up high will do a ton of damage.

As with Ground Pound, Death Slam is a potent crowd control ability and shines best in team fights, stunning and slowing all caught in its radius. As such scenarios are rare in the early game, you can leave upgrading Lash’s Ultimate for last.

Ground Pound should be upgraded twice initially for its shorter cooldown and disruption, with Flog always being the first ability you want to max out ASAP. At level five, each successful hit will inflict a movement and fire rate slow as well as deal huge damage.

Grapple and Ground Strike’s final upgrades both boost Lash’s damage to the moon but sacrificing other upgrades for these in the early game is risky and prone to losing you the lane.

Lash’s skills and respective upgrades are as follows:

• 1: Ground Strike
  • Stomp the ground beneath you, damaging enemies in front of you. If you perform Ground Strike while airborne, you quickly dive towards the ground. Damage grows slower after 25m.
    • -10 second Cooldown
    • Struck enemies are popped into the air and slowed by 50% for 3 seconds
    • Damage Per Meter +110% and improved scaling

• 2: Grapple
  • Pull yourself through the air toward a target. Using Grapple also resets your limit of air jumps and dashes.
  • -20 second Cooldown
  • +20m Cast Range and gain +6 Weapon Damage for 10 seconds
  • +20% Fire Rate to Weapon Bonus Buff

• 3: Flog
  • Strike enemies with your whip, stealing life from them.
    • Apply 35% Movement Slow for 3 seconds
    • -15 second Cooldown
    • +105 Damage and applies 35% Fire Rate Slow

• Death Slam
  • Focus on enemies to connect whips to them. After channeling, connected enemies are lifted and stunned then slammed into the ground. Your victims and any enemies in the landing zone will be damaged and slowed. Press [M3] to throw connected enemies early. Enemies that are not in line of sight or go out of range during the latch time will not be grabbed.
    • +8 meter Max Throw Distance
    • +100 Damage
    • -60 second Cooldown

Best build for Lash: Deadlock items explained

Early Game Items

As you won’t yet have an extremely fast cooldown on Lash’s abilities, picking up Basic Magazine, Close Quarters, and Mystic Shot should be prioritized to make clearing minions more efficient. With those in hand, start branching out into the Spirit items you’ll be upgrading and carrying through to late game.

Extra Charge and Extra Spirit will give bonuses to weapon and ability damage respectively, with charges being incredibly useful for staying in the air. Mystic Burst is a must-have considering it’ll proc on Lash’s 1 at almost any point in the game, it’s a big power spike. Mystic Reach will increase the range of Lash’s abilities, enabling him to poke the enemy hero from a greater distance.

Rounding out early buys are Extra Stamina and Extra Health for more mobility, survivability, and small bumps in damage.

Mid Game Items

While most of mid-game should be spent upgrading early-game items to their Improved versions, there are some new additions you’ll want to make to Lash’s kit, chief among them being Point Blank.

While not game-changing, Lash gets even more mobility (+1 Stamina) out of it, as well as another source of Movement Slow other than Flog. As you’ll start to float between lanes at this point in the match for gank and/or ambush opportunities, scuppering your target’s ability to escape is good to have on hand.

Depending on how successful your farm has been, you might want to hold off on buying Pristine Emblem in addition to Point Blank until late game. If you have the funds, however, definitely grab it for the +25% additional weapon damage.

Healing Booster, Bullet Armor, and Spirit Armor should all be picked up here to give Lash some leeway to survive and escape any encounter that doesn’t go in his favor.

Late Game/Luxury Items

Now it’s time to lock in the upgrades you’ll be carrying through to the end of a match. First and foremost, get the Improved versions of Bullet and Spirit Armor. At this stage, you should already be dishing out more than enough damage to beat most heroes in a one-on-one, so more of it can wait.

Next, make a beeline for Superior Cooldown and Soul Rebirth. The former should be imbued on your Flog and, combined with the latter, make it ready for use at a moment’s notice. If you find yourself still wanting more universal cooldown reduction, Diviner’s Kevlar and Spiritual Overflow can be thrown into the mix.

Outside of these, there’s not much else that’s integral. Fortitude‘s extra health and regen can help with sustain and Intensifying Magazine is great for prolonged engagements, but they can be safely ignored or left for last if you’re short on Souls.

Situational Items

Some items are only considered necessary against certain team compositions or in niche situations. See below for some examples and the context in which they prove useful:

• Silencer: If you’re struggling in lane against an ability-heavy hero, Silencer imbues all of your bullets with the status effect for four seconds. Great to give Lash a reprieve from Viscous or Yamato.
• Warp Stone: Lash doesn’t typically need to augment his mobility, but Warp Stone’s +20% Weapon Damage and +8 Spirit are great to have mid-game if you’re up against tanky heroes such as Warden or Kelvin.
• Mystic Slow: Heroes with strong escape tools such as Pocket can be difficult for Lash to lock down. Mystic Slow can remedy that by inflicting a hefty +30% movement slow on any Spirit Damage hit.
• Knockdown: Knockdown is one of the most reliable means of interrupting channeled abilities from heroes such as Seven and Viscous.
• Healbane: The single most useful item to have against heroes with potent self-healing, giving a 40% Healing Reduction to any hero hit with Spirit Damage.
• Debuff Remover: Movement and Fire Rate Slows can seriously hamper Lash’s ability to move around the map. Take this to drastically reduce their duration if you’re getting caught by them frequently.
• Shadow Weave: A strong escape and engage tool, Shadow Weave is almost always worthwhile for Lash, only failing to make the cut due to its price and other items taking priority. If you’re drowning in Souls and already have every late-game item you need, take this.
• Colossus: Great in team fights for the extra bulk it provides, but not much else.
• Phantom Strike: If you find yourself consistently failing to close out a kill, Phantom Strike’s teleport and 50% Movement Slow will work wonders.

That’s a wrap on our guide on how to build Lash as a lightning-fast assassin. To see how the Indiana Jones wannabe compares to the rest of Deadlock’s existing heroes, check out our tier list.