Deadlock McGinnis Build
Overview
McGinnis is a hero that anyone can quickly get the hang of and perform well even as a new player. Thanks to her turrets, healing ability, and large magazine size. She's a fantastic choice for players seeking versatility and a smooth learning curve to improve their knowledge of Deadlock. Skilled players, however, can truly excel by mastering her positioning and using her walls strategically to dominate the game while playing a reliable hero that matches well against all heroes.
- Easy to Play.
- Amazing area control, capable of locking down an area using turrets.
- Great laning phase and split pushing.
- Good self and team healing through the use of
Medicinal Specter.
- Low mobility and stationary gameplay, making McGinnis very vulnerable against long range heroes like Vindicta and Grey Talon.
- Low CC options, with
Spectral Wall being the only option to lock down enemies. - Weak late game compared to other heroes as the
Mini Turret damage falls off and they become easier to kill as the game continues.
Items
Ability Path
| Mini Turret
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| Medicinal Specter
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| Spectral Wall
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 Heavy Barrage
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Skills
- Mini Turret — This is your main skill to keep in mind as it spawns a turret that attacks every hostile enemy in its range. Use Mini Turret to dominate the lane by placing them behind cover to help clear out waves while also attacking the enemy heroes foolish enough to push close to your position. Try to always bait your enemies into Mini Turret range to maximize turret damage when coupled with your raw weapon damage.
- Medicinal Specter — This is your AOE heal and should be used to remain alive, healing up during the laning phase while also increasing the fire-rate of whoever is healed by this ability.
- Spectral Wall — Always use Spectral Wall and hit enemies with it after the wall passes through them them so you can spawn the wall in their retreat path. Doing this correctly will stun the enemy and also increase your damage on the same enemies. Using this skill well shows the difference between a new McGinnis player. This is the only CC skill available to McGinnis and can help a lot with setting up kills and catching fleeing enemies as the wall is tall enough to block escapes.
- Heavy Barrage — While this skill does good damage, it is also difficult to aim and hit as the projectile speed is slow and predictable even though AOE can do good damage to CC'd targets. You should always use this to kill Guardians and Walkers as the long range allows you to stay safe while dealing high DPS.
Early Game / Laning Phase
While in the Laning Phase, McGinnis makes great use of Mini Turret, making it easy to last hit troopers while you should focus on denying the enemy as much as possible. Always try to keep Mini Turret out of direct view of the enemy so they cannot kill them too quickly. You can bait enemies into pushing you while positioning the enemy between yourself and your Mini Turret. Follow up by locking them there through use of Spectral Wall.
Basic Magazine coupled with Bullet Lifesteal is a very cheap power spike early on and also helps with your survivability in lane. A third, yet equally important item is Extra Charge increases your Mini Turret turret count to 3!
Fleetfoot counters the slow movement speed of McGinnis and allows you to chase enemies while shooting without losing any movement speed. As the game progresses, Fleetfoot helps a lot with moving across the map but also escaping enemies trying to gank you.
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Mid Game
As the game advances into the Mid game and the Midboss spawns, you should look for opportunities to take down the first guardian and shoving the lane deeper. Expand away from your lane to nearby jungle mobs, clearing them as quickly as possible before moving on to split pushing lanes and farming souls to build an advantage. Keep and eye out for the Urn and support your team when they try to deliver it as it grants a large amount of souls.
Try to secure all vending machines as they provide a large amount of souls and it is preferable to take them from the enemy side of the map when possible but your low mobility might put you into danger so split pushing remains a safer alternative. Using Fleetfoot, McGinnis can move in and out lanes with ease while farming souls and remaining safe as you buy more items.
Intensifying Magazine pairs perfectly with McGinnis continuous firing as it greatly increases your damage, making it a perfect choice for McGinnis. This is especially powerful when paired with Bullet Resist Shredder while Titanic Magazine also increases your max ammo and damage.
Don't forget to also use Heroic Aura every time you get into a fight!
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Late Game
As your game progresses into the late game, start focusing more on team fights. Use the Spectral Wall to split off the enemy team and catch 1-2 enemies at the time, allowing your team to collapse on them and score kills. Don't forget to always try and kill the Midboss after winning a team fight so you can press the advantage and take down the enemy Patron.
Lucky Shot should be the first item you buy in the late game, having a 35% chance of dealing extra damage while also slowing your enemies and increasing your ammo! This pairs perfectly with the quick firing rate and bullet heavy build of McGinnis.
Vampiric Burst is a secondary late game item that offers incredible life stealing to pair well with Siphon Bullets, letting you stay in a fight much longer.
Silencer usually remains as your last item, so you can use it to silence enemies you hit, making it possible to silence an entire enemy team during the short duration of the Silencer buff.
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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.
- Improved Spirit Armor - A great choice vs Spirit heavy teams that can help with winning the game if the game lasts too long, however, it shouldn't be a priority.
- Improved Bullet Armor - This is a fantastic choice for countering Bullet heavy teams, especially vs Haze and Wraith.
- 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.
- 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 the 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.
- Soul Rebirth — Another item worth buying late into the match as it brings you back to life and allows you to initiate, pull enemies to kill you while you do maximum damage then revive. Keep in mind that enemies can see that you've got this item under your hero's icon at the top of the screen.
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