Best Deadlock Vindicta build: Abilities & Items

Vindicta is one of Deadlock’s few long-range specialists, and she’s a great choice if you’re looking to take down enemies from range. But you’ll need the right build to start snowballing and, more importantly, to stay alive.

Regarding carry potential, Vindicta has some of the highest damage in Deadlock. Her ability to fly out of reach makes her particularly annoying to deal with for your opponent, but don’t let that distance make you feel safe.

This guide will go over not only how to play Vindicta but also how your opponents will try to counter you. She’s one of the most straightforward characters in Deadlock to shut down, but also one of its hardest carries.

With the player count climbing daily, more and more people will know how to play against you. You’ll have to learn how to fight back.

Here’s the best build for Vindicta in Deadlock, as well as which items you should build and how you should max her abilities.

Is Vindicta good in Deadlock?

Vindicta’s sitting at B-Tier on our Deadlock tier list, but she’s close to being a C-Tier. She’s not bad, just risky. Her lack of quick mobility and self-peel makes combined with her reliance on getting souls via kills with her ult mean that a lot of things can go wrong for her.

She’s good in the right hands and with the right team, but a lot has to go right for Vindicta to carry a match. There are other heroes that are better and easier to play.

Vindicta abilities explained: What should you max?

Ability	Description	Level Up Bonuses
Stake	Throw a stake that tethers enemies to the location where the stake lands. Enemy movement is restricted to the length of the tether.	+1: +0.75 Tether duration +2: -20 second cooldown +5: Tethered enemies are also disarmed
Flight	Leap into the air and fly. While in flight, your weapon deals bonus spirit damage.	+1: +50% base ammo while flying +2: -15 second cooldown +5: +12 spirit damage per bullet
Crow Familiar	Your crow familiar deals impact damage and applies a bleed that deals damage for a percentage of the target’s current health per second	+1: Crow Ricochets up to 2 times toward other enemies within 15 meters +2: -17 second cooldown +5: +3% bleed and suppresses healing by -40%
Assassinate	Use your scoped rifle to fire a powerful shot over long distances. Deal only partial damage until fully charged after 1 second of being scoped. Does bonus damage to enemies with less than 50% health remaining. Landing a killing blow on a player with Assassinate grants 250 bonus souls.	+1: -20 second cooldown +2: +140 bonus damage +5: +600 souls per Assassination

Assassinate is Vindicta’s bread and butter. It has multiple charges that make it worth putting Quicksilver Reload on. The execute damage takes out low targets, and the static amount of bonus souls per kill can make her stand out. In Deadlock’s early game, kills aren’t worth much. They scale up as the game goes on. Vindicta, meanwhile, can immediately start snowballing.

Here’s the max path:

Best items to build on Vindicta

The items here will be divided into four sections: early-game, mid-game, late-game luxury items, and situational options.

Those first three sections are straightforward, though it’s ok to buy a late-game item early on if you’ve got a bunch of souls lying around. In fact, you should in a few cases. The high variance around Vindicta’s Assassinate makes explaining her build path a bit trickier than other heroes.

Important note: Slowing Hex is the bane of your existence on Vindicta, and people who know to buy it early against you will dive you constantly. If you see someone buy this early, keep them as far away as possible and invest in defense options.

There’s no objectively correct build on any character in Deadlock, but that rule is even more true for this hero. That said, that’ll give you a good place to start.

Early Game items

Weapon Items:

• Monster Rounds: Great for if you’re trying to learn the game still or plan on killing jungle camps. There are very few matches where this item is a bad buy.
• High-Velocity Mag: Great for a nice bit of bullet shield, but necessary because of the increased bullet speed. This’ll make your life so much easier when firing from range.
• Headshot Booster: Solid choice if you’re looking for some extra early damage and has an easy build path into Headhunter.

Vitality Items:

• Extra Health: Vindicta is super squishy in general, so grabbing this against heavy dive is a decent choice early if you need it.
• Extra Stamina: This is especially important to get early now that Vindicta can dash during flight. You’ll want to upgrade this at some point in the mid/late game.
• Sprint Boots: A must for roaming around the map, and a generally good buy on most characters. You’ll want to upgrade this at some point in the mid/late game, but grab sooner than later if you’re against heavy slows.
• Healing Rite: Grab this if you’re really struggling in lane. Falls off later but great early.

Spirit Items:

• Extra Charge: This is the only Spirit item you’ll really want early. Wait until you get your ult to pick it up.

Mid Game items

Weapon Items:

• Sharpshooter: You’ll be fighting at long range most of the the time on Vindicta, so this item is something you should buy at some point in the game. Don’t be afraid to buy Long Range first and then build into this later.
• Headhunter: Fantastic buy if you’re confident in your aim. Lifesteal is kind of meh on Vindicta since her damage is so mixed, so the base heal on this item is great for trading.
• Pristine Emblem: Whittle them down with weapon shots and go in for the kill with Assassinate. The bonus weapon damage on this item is very effective for farming those ult kills.
• Active Reload: You’ll want to get as much as possible out of being in the air since you do bonus damage. Taking Active Reload will give you some sustain and let you get more bullets down range.

Vitality Items:

• Combat Barrier: The bonus shield and weapon damage on this item make it a universally good buy.
• Enchanter’s Barrier: Good for the same reason as Combat Barrier but for Spirit damage and protections.
  • Note: The mid game is a good time to upgrade your Sprint and Stamina items

Spirit Items:

• Quicksilver Reload: Great for getting more ammo in a pinch. Put it on your ult.
• Improved Spirit: Having more spirit damage in general is good on Vindicta once you approach the late game, and this is the best way to get some without spending too many souls.

Late Game/Luxury

Weapon Items:

• Crippling Headshot: The shred on this hits both Spirit and Weapon resistance, giving Vindicta a ton of bonus damage against any target.
• Lucky Shot: Feeling lucky? This item is basically crit, and it’ll give you a lot of extra damage.
• Glass Cannon: High risk, high reward. If you’re super ahead and want to really get the snowball rolling, this’ll do the job. Just be careful, you’ll be very easy to kill with this item equipped.

Vitality Items:

• Soul Rebirth: Once you die, you revive after a short duration. This is ideal if you’re getting focused and know you’re the main carry threat on your team.
• Leech: The ideal lifesteal item for Vindicta. She’s got a lot of mixed Spirit and Weapon damage, and this item giving you healing from both damage types is a game-changer.

Spirit Items:

• Ethereal Shift: Normally a situational item, but a must-have on Vindicta in most games to prevent you from getting dived and bursted down.
• Mystic Slow: Considering your bullets apply spirit damage and you won’t realistically have enough Weapon Item slots for Slowing Bullets, this is a great bet.
• Improved Burst: A great pairing with Assassinate, you’ll be able to execute most heroes at around 30% of their HP.
• Boundless Spirit: The epitome of luxury. A ton of raw stats, all of which are great on Vindicta.

Situational items

Weapon Items:

• Silencer: Against certain heroes, this is a really strong buy. Purchase against ability-reliant heroes that are dashing away from or toward you.
• Warp Stone: Great for an extra dash, especially since Vindicta’s stamina is lower than most heroes. Just know you’ll be strapped for Weapon Item slots and that buying this can significantly hurt your damage unless you get all four of those flex slots open.

Vitality Items:

• Veil Walker: Vindicta wants shield items for durability, and this is great for getting a quick refresh on those shields without needing to wait out the CD on them. Grab it if you’re getting harassed a lot.
• Debuff Remover: Cleanses more than you’d think. Fantastic against characters with heavy DoTs like Infernus and Pocket, or against long-lasting CC like Mo & Krill’s disarm.
• Reactive Barrier: Great bang for your buck value against divers with hard CC.
• Fortitude: The out-of-combat healing is really great to have since lifesteal items are a bit meh on Vindicta outside of Leech. Fantastic for if you’re behind and trying to claw your way back into the match.

Spirit Items

• Curse: Curse is your best friend against a hard carry trying to dive you. Whether it be Haze, Mo & Krill, Lash, or other backline bombers, this’ll buy you enough time to get some damage in and have your teammates help peel for you. Only grab it if you really need it, though. Curse is pricy.
• Silence Glyph: Great for the same reasons Silencer is good, but just cheaper and target toward a single enemy.
• Knockdown: Good buy against divers or channel characters like Seven and Mo & Krill.
• Rapid Recharge: Not a must have by any means unless you find yourself using your ult a lot.

That’s how you should build and play Vindicta in Deadlock! If you want to see how good she is compared to the rest of the cast, check out our tier list.