Deadlock Grey Talon Build
Overview
Grey Talon is one of the two sniper heroes in Deadlock, able to deal high spirit damage and keeping enemies away through the use of Charged Shot. While Grey Talon is a very squishy hero, he relies on staying at range from enemies and dealing damage from far way while controlling range through CC with Immobilizing Trap. Grey Talon is a spirit damage focused hero unlike Vindicta and is best for players with good game knowledge.
Even though Grey Talon does good damage even with his bow left click attacks, the burst damage from both Charged Shot and Guided Owl can overwhelm enemies quickly and dominate team fights.
- High Burst damage from long range.
- Great poke damage and easy to play in lane as Grey Talon's long range can easily overwhelm most heroes by denying their opportunities to engage.
- Good jungling clear speed by lining Charged Shot through denizens.
- Mechanically difficult to play well as it requires good positioning and game sense to not overextend and die.
- Can be easily countered by Knockdown, being put down on the ground where she is most vulnerable.
Items
Ability Path
Charged Shot | 1 | 2 | 5 | |||||||||||||
Rain of Arrows | 1 | 2 | 5 | |||||||||||||
Immobilizing Trap | 1 | 2 | 5 | |||||||||||||
Guided Owl | 1 | 2 | 5 |
Skills
- Charged Shot — This is your main damaging skill and your bread and butter skill. While it takes a bit of time to charge up, Charged Shot is capable of delivering high damage quickly when used repeatedly.
- Rain of Arrows — Grey Talon's only mobility skill that also grants him self-sustain once fully upgraded through the life steal it provides. Use Rain of Arrows as often as possible in order to stay away from enemies that would otherwise kill you. However, you cannot move up or down unlike Vindicta. You can however still use your dashes to move around horizontally. Always try to use Rain of Arrows while you are already high up in order to maximize the height you reach.
- Immobilizing Trap — The Immobilizing Trap damage is negligible to non-existent while also having a small charge-up before it is activated. However, unlike Vindicta's Stake, Immobilizing Trap locks down the enemy in place entirely and increases the damage you do to them.
- Guided Owl — Use this to finish off running targets or to simply put the enemy team at a disadvantage by landing it in a group of enemy players to force their team into a disadvantage. You can also use Guided Owl on other lanes, sending it to adjacent lanes to finish off enemies that get low.
Early Game / Laning Phase
Take advantage of your superior range to trade with enemy laners and deal sustained damage without having to get close. Killing troopers should be easy, but always aim to maintain range advantage against the enemy laner/s.
Charged Shot has a surprisingly large hitbox and can be used to hit enemies behind walls by clipping the edges of their hero models with this skill.
Abuse your range throughout the laning phase and lock down enemies with Immobilizing Trap to hold them in place and possibly follow up with Charged Shot hits.
Focus on farming troopers in lane and denying the enemy to get ahead in souls during the early part of the match. Grey Talon doesn't require a lot of items to do well.
Mystic Burst, Extra Spirit and Extra Charge greatly increase the damage you deal with Charged Shot while also adding an extra charge to it, giving you more chances to pressure enemies. Mystic Shot shouldn't be underestimated though as it adds extra spirit damage to your left click attacks.
Early Game Situational
If you are struggling in lane, Healing Rite can offer good healing without requiring you to go back to the base but you must remain outside of enemy range as any attack you receive from enemies will cancel the item. You should sell this later into the game as its value lowers while the game advances.
Mid Game
Prioritize Improved Burst & Surge of Power (applied to Charged Shot) to boost your damage further. Try to stagger the uses of Charged Shot and wait for Surge of Power cooldown between shots to maximize the burst damage you deal while also increasing your movement speed for a short while so you can move around easier. Rapid Recharge also helps with your cooldown speed, allowing Charged Shot to be used even more.
Once the guardian in your lane is down, begin to roam the map and start clearing out neutral jungle camps in order to maximize your souls gain throughout the mid game. Keep an eye on the Urn as much as possible as that is where fights usually happen during the mid game allowing you to pick kills when given the chance.
Make sure to start grouping up with your team mates as team fights become more important. However, don't chase kills all over the map as lane pushing and jungle camps + vending machines provide a much larger amount of souls. Your main team objective during the mid game is to take out 2 guardians and 2 walkers to unlock 2 flex slots and boost your advantage as a team.
Late Game
In the late game, stay close to your team and group up as much as possible for team fights. It's crucial that neither you nor your teammates get caught out, or the enemy could gain control of the Midboss.
While sticking with your team is key, keep an eye on the side lanes. Continue farming and gathering souls to complete your build. Improved Spirit should be upgraded to Boundless Spirit while enhancing Charged Shot further with Mystic Reverb before upgrading your mobility with Superior Stamina.
Look for fights around major objectives like the Midboss & The Urn and press the advantage if you win the fight by taking Midboss or pushing deep into enemy base and taking down all enemy Walkers or a Shrine to fully unlock the flex slots for your team.
Finally, enhance Guided Owl cooldown with Superior Cooldown and buy Spiritual Overflow as the last DPS increasing item that grants you some extra Spirit to improve all your other skill damage.
Situational Items
These items can be bought up to counter certain heroes as they work perfectly for specific scenarios.
- Healbane — This is a great item choice against healing heavy heroes like Infernus or Abrams, helping you take them down.
- Knockdown — Cheap item to counter both snipers like Vindicta and Grey Talon by knocking them out of the air. This also works on Seven while he is ulting and he will also be stopped.
- Unstoppable — A fantastic choice for becoming unstoppable and immune to CCs, especially useful against CC heavy teams.
- Curse — This item interrupts spellcasting, silences and disarms a target while also making them incapable of using items for the duration. While it is expensive, it can help a lot vs Sevens Storm Cloud, Dynamos Singularity and many more and its one of the most powerful items in the game.
- Silence Glyph — Buy this if you want to silence enemies and turn them into a quick kill. Works exceptionally well vs enemies that make use of short cooldowns like Lash. It is also great for countering Yamato as the silence can stop her from using the ultimate.
- Debuff Remover — This item removes all debuffs when pressed and can be amazing vs heroes like Bebop as it counters his Sticky Bomb entirely.
- Metal Skin — While not very useful against other heroes, this is very good vs Hazes ultimate, allowing you to reposition away from her while she uses it without taking any damage.