Deadlock: Warden Build Guide

Deadlock‘s Warden descends from a family that’s been training and preparing to fight the supernatural for generations. But for the last 50 years, nothing supernatural has been happening. The lessons taught by his family soon became just stories told by grandparents rather than a dire warning. Then, when a supernatural portal opened up, Warden’s parents realized the error of their ways and began training their son.

In game, Warden is a bruiser that wants to be in the front lines helping his teammates slay the supernatural wherever it may show its disgusting face. His skills focus on controlling enemy movement, and his Ultimate skill can single-handedly delete heroes from the mortal plane. Knowing how to harness the Warden’s fearsome arsenal takes practice and knowing how to build him in each stage of the game. This guide will go over what items you should be taking, and how you should be playing this officer of the law.

Deadlock Warden Overview

Warden is a close to midrange bruiser that wants to use his self buff to get close to the enemy then cast Alchemist Flask and Binding Word to control the flow of the battle. His skills are also particularly effective at punishing enemies for overextending. His main weapon is also strong enough to poke enemies with and has a large enough magazine size to comfortably farm minions while denying enemies their last hits. Additionally, its fire rate has a 0.3 scaling with any spirit you build, allowing Warden to deal more damage later in the game.

Once 10 minutes have passed and players are roaming around the map completing objectives, the Warden can use his ultimate, Last Stand, to either initiate a team fight or punish a team for clumping up too tightly. Good understanding of Deadlock’s movement will further help the Warden’s ultimate become an effective crowd-busting tool.

Warden Abilities

Deadlock Warden Build Guide

At this current moment, one of the best ways to build Warden is to lower the cooldowns of his powerful abilities so you can use them as often as possible, and increase the power and utility of his main weapon so you can get ahead of your opponents. To do so, we’re going to focus on getting out of the laning phase with most of our abilities online, and then in the late game, start focusing on our weapon more.

Skill Leveling Order

• Skill Priority: Binding Word > Last Stand > Alchemical Flask > Willpower
• Skill Order:

  • Souls	Skill to Unlock/Upgrade
    0	Unlock Alchemical Flask
    400	Unlock and upgrade Binding Word(T1)
    1.5k	Unlock Willpower
    2.2k	Binding Word (T2)
    3k	Unlock Last Stand
    7.5k	Binding Word (T3)
    8k	Last Stand (T1)
    9.7k	Last Stand (T2)
    18k	Last Stand (T3)
    20k	Alchemical Flask (T1) or Willpower (T1)
    22k	Alchemical Flask (T1) or Willpower (T1)
    26k	Alchemical Flask (T2)

At the beginning of the game, start with unlocking Alchemical Flask. Early Flask will help clear mobs independent of your main weapon, and offer a tool for damaging enemy heroes if they’re standing too close to their own minions looking for a denial.

After that, unlock Binding Word and save ability points to max it out as soon as possible. This ability is the main source of Warden’s terrifying 1v1 potential in lane. Land an Alchemical Flask hit first, then immediately follow up with a Binding Word. This forces the opponent into either staying in the lane and getting immobilized, or leaving the lane and allowing you to farm in peace.

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As soon as its available at 3k souls, unlock Last Stand. This ultimate has plenty of power behind it with little investment, but once you finish leveling Binding Word, Last Stand will be your next priority. Ideally, you’ll have a fully leveled Last Stand along with the Superior Cooldown and Superior Duration items so you can use your ultimate every 48 seconds with a 7.92 second duration.

Willpower is a useful skill to have because it makes you a little tankier and move faster, but you’ll rarely want more than a single point into it. There may be some tank builds that will want to maximize this skill, but if you want to focus on team utility and solo carry potential, save this skill for last.

Item Progression

Early game

• High Velocity Mag
• Extra Regen
• Extra Health
• Basic Magazine
• If you’re struggling in lane: Extra Stamina and Sprint Boots.

Mid-game

• Improved Cooldown
• Duration Extender
• Slowing Bullets
• Enduring Speed
• If you need more damage: Swift Striker, but sell later for Intensifying Magazine

Late Game

• Titanic Magazine
• Intensifying Magazine
• Headhunter
• Superior Cooldown (Last Stand)
• Superior Duration (Last Stand)
• Superior Stamina
• Mystic Slow
• Torment Pulse
• Silencer

End Game

• Silencer
• Inhibitor – sell Extra Health for this

Flex Slots

• Siphon Bullets
• Diviner’s Kevlar
• Surge of Power
• Leech – sell Extra Regen

In the early game, you’ll want to grab High Velocity Mag and Basic Magazine for an early spike in damage and extra bullets in your magazine to farm and deny last hits with. Extra Regen and Extra Health should be bought for additional tankiness. If you’re still struggling to farm, buy Extra Stamina and Speed Boots since those will be built into later items anyway and they can give you more survivability if you’re struggling in lane.

Once the souls start rolling in and you’re able to reach 1250 souls at a decent rate, start buying mid-game items. Improved Cooldown and Duration Extender will both improve Warden’s skills like Last Stand and Binding Word, and also buff his fire rate. Slowing Bullets will help Binding Word go off more consistently, and Enduring Speed will give you more health, speed, and resistance to slows so you can escape more consistently. Swift Striker can also be bought if you’re struggling to get enough damage, but be aware you’ll be selling it later for Intensifying Magazine.

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In the late game, you’ll want to upgrade the items you already have, build the Mystic Slow + Torment Pulse combo, and buy Intensifying Magazine to further increase your damage. Titanic Magazine and Headhunter can be built out of Basic Magazine and High-velocity Mag, while Superior Cooldown and Superior Duration are built out of Improved Cooldown and Duration Extender. You’ll also want to buy Torment Pulse and Mystic Slow close to each other since these two items will both increase the amount of damage dealt by Warden and make sure they have almost no chance of escaping from Binding Word.

Finally, in the end game when you have the souls to spare, you can build Silencer to lock enemies out of their abilities for a short time and make it much easier for Binding Word to successfully immobilize them. Inhibitor is used for both survivability and an additional slow, and Diviner’s Kevlar and Unstoppable are built to further strengthen Last Stand. If you’re fighting a team with plenty of CC, Unstoppable will become invaluable because it can be used while you’re in Last Stand so you can’t be stopped while ulting.

How To Play Warden

Early on, focus on clearing waves with your gun and Alchemical Flasks. Flasks are particularly wonderful here since they take some of the burden off your weapon’s magazine. Warden’s gun has a surprising amount of range, so don’t be afraid to poke at long range against some opponents. Remember to also focus on denials because those can help you gain a strong lead against your lane opponents and Warden’s magazine gives you enough ammo to farm and deny if you don’t spray too much.

Once you get Binding Word online, you can be a bit more of a bully in lane. Alchemical Flask can now be used for both mob clear and to set up your opponent for a Binding Word, just use Binding Word on the slowed target then collect the kill. If your opponent managed to flee in time, then get a last hit on a minion before they can get back into position to try and deny the souls.

From there, you can be even more aggressive once you get your ultimate up. Use it to initiate a fight, or to push people out of an area like near the enemy guardian. If you’ve built slowing bullets, then you’re less reliant on landing Alchemical Flasks in order to get a successful Binding Word. If you’re laning with someone, the slow from your gunshots can also help set up a kill for them.

In the late game, when you’re roaming around or trying to win team fights, you’ll want to find squishy enemies, and use either Last Stand + Willpower to melt them, or you can use Binding Word on a slowed enemy for your team to focus fire. Torment Pulse and Mystic Slow will slow all enemies near you every 1.6 seconds, and Last Stand’s combination of high damage and sustain gives you all the tools you need to stick close to any grouped-up enemies and set them up for your team or for you to clean up enemies yourself.

Headhunter, Intensifying Magazine, and Titanic Magazine will ensure that anyone immobilized by you or out of position will be an easy pick for you or your team. Just be careful with your own positioning. While Warden is more sturdy than most of the cast, you’ll still melt if everyone turns around and unloads their skills on you – you’ll just melt slower than other characters. In bad situations like that, use the additional stamina from Superior Stamina and the movement speed bonus from Willpower and Enduring Speed to outmaneuver your opponents.