Deadlock Warden Build
Overview
Warden is a great choice for new players and is one of the easiest heroes to play in Deadlock. Warden is ALSO one of the tankiest heroes in the game thanks to his Last Stand innate lifesteal coupled with extra Spirit Shield from Willpower. His damage shouldn't be underestimated though as Warden boasts great single target DPS during team fights but also while ganking enemies or jungling.
- High movement speed and mobility.
- Easy to play.
- High Single Target DPS.
- High survivability.
- Vulnerable to CC, especially during the windup of Last Stand as any stun can waste your ult.
- Short range, making it difficult to fight heroes like Vindicta and Grey Talon.
Items
Ability Path
Alchemical Flask | 1 | 2 | 5 | |||||||||||||
Willpower | 1 | 2 | 5 | |||||||||||||
Binding Word | 1 | 2 | 5 | |||||||||||||
Last Stand | 1 | 2 | 5 |
Skills
- Alchemical Flask — You should use this skill to lower an enemy's stamina and apply a slow to make it easier for you to land your Binding Word. Alchemical Flask is also used to reload your weapon through the use of Quicksilver Reload.
- Willpower — Use this skill for both movement speed, coupled with Fleetfoot but also to gain a Spirit Shield that will allow you to preemtively protect yourself against enemies.
- Binding Word — This is your main CC ability and the skill that allows you to catch enemies and get kills, especially in the early laning phase of the game when heroes have low stamina and a difficult time avoiding the Binding Word.
- Last Stand — Always try to use this skill behind cover as it has a moderate windup time before it becomes active. However, once active, Last Stand grants you high AOE damage to all enemies in front of you while also life stealing based on the damage you do with it. Try to always have as many enemies as possible directly in front of you when using this skill in order to maximize your lifesteal.
Early Game / Laning Phase
During the laning phase, make sure to abuse Binding Word, forcing enemies to back off lane in order to escape your bind, giving up troopers or be forced to take damage from you if they get caught in Binding Word. Try to not be obvious when you are going to use this skill as many enemies will wait until you use it to spend their stamina.
Focus on farming troopers in lane and denying the enemy in order to stay ahead in souls. Because of Warden being rather item dependant, you want to try and get ahead as early as possible and should try to play the lane safe, especially against heroes like Yamato as they have higher mobility and damage early on.
Mystic Burst pairs perfectly with your Binding Word as it adds extra damage to your Binding Word, letting you burst down enemies by simply catching them with Binding Word and the follow-up damage from your gun while being in close range for Close Quarters.
You should get both Fleetfoot and Slowing Hex before moving out of lane as both of these items help a lot when ganking, allowing you to catch enemies by surprise much easier.
Early Game Situational
If you are struggling in lane, Healing Rite can offer great 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.
Another good choice is the Melee Lifesteal as it allows you to heal up during the laning phase if you are having a tough time against the opponent/s. You can combo Melee Lifesteal through a melee attack on a player after catching them with Binding Word but you should use melees on troopers every time Melee Lifesteal is off cooldown.
Mid Game
Thanks to Fleetfoot and Willpower, your ability to roam the map only improves as you roll into the mid game. You should make use of these to gank lanes and force enemies off their lane, denying souls and starving the enemy team so they end up behind. Warden is one of the better Urn carriers as well and you should focus on delivering the Urn as many times as possible throughout the mid game.
Don't forget jungling and vending machines as they provide a large amount of souls and it is preferable to take them from the enemy side of the map, using your great mobility while avoiding unfair fights.
Focus on getting Headhunter to further boost your damage, being especially useful when you catch an enemy in your Binding Word and can easily headshot the enemy. If they fight back, Berserker will also boost your damage while receiving damage!
Both Spirit Armor and Bullet Armor offer great survivability and can later be upgraded while Fortitude allows you to also regenerate HP between fights after not taking damage for a few seconds, minimizing the time you spend in the base.
Late Game
During the late game, you should focus on controlling Midboss and picking lone enemies that are trying to split push. You are strongest in a 1vs1 scenario and can gank easily while using the Warden superior mobility to cover multiple lanes quickly and denying split pushing attempts from heroes like McGinnis. Try to always disengage from a fight if it becomes unfair and the enemy team responds to your gank!
Pristine Emblem should be the first item you buy in the late game so you boost your damage further! Veil Walker should be your secondary late game item offering you both tankiness through extra Bullet & Spirit Shield every time you pass through a cosmic veil but also makes you invisible for a short duration. This increases your ganking power considerably, allowing you to walk up to enemies quickly to setup for Binding Word.
Buy Point Blank for extra damage as an upgrade to Close Quarters, further increasing your damage alongside Inhibitor.
Improved Bullet Armor and Improved Spirit Armor are very powerful defensive choices in the late game helping you stay in fights longer, especially when coupled with Veil Walker and Willpower.
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.