Deadlock Yamato Build
Overview
Yamato is perfect for players enjoying a highly mobile hero that goes in and out of fights with ease, dealing high damage in close range while also being challenging to master. She excels as a duelist but is also a capable 1vsX fighter through the use of 
Shadow Transformation and Refresher. While mechanically intensive, Yamato can perform incredibly well in the hands of someone willing to take the time to master her unique kit.
- Incredible 1vsX potential.
- Good initiator.
- High damage.
- Mechanically intensive with a high skill ceiling.
- Has to be in close range to deal good damage.
- Squishy and relying on Shadow Transformation for sustain, making Yamato easy to counter with a well timed Silence Glyph.
Items
Ability Path
 Power Slash
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 Flying Strike
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 Crimson Slash
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| Shadow Transformation
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Skills
- Power Slash — This is your main DPS skill, capable of dealing incredible damage wherever you point your crosshair after a short charge-up. You can re-activate this skill to release it early in case enemies run out of your range but you should always aim to channel the entire duration as Power Slash deals higher damage when fully charged.
- Flying Strike — This is the skill you use to catch enemies and is your main mobility skill. You should use Flying Strike to close the distance between yourself and the enemy, slowing them and making it easier for you to land Power Slash.
- Crimson Slash — Use this instant AOE skill to both heal yourself when hitting enemies but also to slow down enemy fire rate, giving you some time to deliver damage before they can react. This is the perfect follow-up after Flying Strike.
- Shadow Transformation — This ultimate makes Yamato unkillable for the duration while also boosting her resistances, making her immune to CC. However, the most important part is that it also resets all your other skills and makes them quicker. Use this after using your other skills in order to overwhelm the enemy with your attacks. Shadow Transformation can also be reset by Refresher, greatly boosting your kill potential.
Early Game / Laning Phase
Spend the laning phase looking for openings to use your Power Slash empowered by Mystic Burst and poke the enemy laner/s in order to force them off troopers and force them to lose souls. Playing around cover and on the sides of the lane helps a great deal with catching enemies out of position.
Focus on farming troopers as well as possible while denying the enemy. Do not underestimate your right click attack either as the AOE attack deals great splash damage, making it especially useful when poking the enemy laner and forcing him off position. You can use this attack to hit enemies that are hiding behind cover, so try to abuse it as much as you can to build an advantage.
Try to kill as many troopers as possible using your melee in order to maintain your HP through Melee Lifesteal and Spirit Strike in combination with Extra Regen! Make sure to use your melee attacks on enemy players as much as possible between skills as you deal great damage through your melees, especially with Spirit Strike.
Meanwhile, High-Velocity Mag will be of great help in denying troopers, making your bullets travel quicker.
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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.
Mid Game
Once you make it into the mid game, you should focus on getting Kinetic Dash as quick as possible to improve your attack speed but also offer some extra mobility as dash jumping only costs 1 stamina once Kinetic Dash is active. Try to always jump dash into a fight to increase your left click DPS. Torment Pulse should be your second item, dealing good damage to all enemies nearby, pairing perfectly with Yamato's close range fighting style, becoming even more efficient once you acquire Cold Front.
Keep an eye out for the Urn and take control of it, delivering it if you have the opportunity or simply killing the enemy that might carry the Urn. Playing around the Urn during the mid game should be a priority as delivering it will award you and your team extra souls and help with snowballing towards the late game.
Use Yamato's great mobility to clear neutral jungle camps wherever possible while looking for ganks and start working on your Refresher as it is your biggest power spike, allowing you to reset all your skills and Shadow Transformation. This means you can use all your skills, use Shadow Transformation, use all your skills again then use Refresher to refresh all your skills ONCE MORE, including Shadow Transformation... which will also reset all your skills AGAIN after it is used.
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Late Game
Once the Late Game begins, Yamato should already be incredibly difficult to kill thanks to Refresher. Use this opportunity to advance your lead or farm more neutral camps and split push if you somehow fell behind and need the souls. Yamato is the perfect duelist and you should try to gank as much as possible, using her ridiculous kit to finish off targets before they can group up with their team.
Once you win a team fight, make sure to get the most out of it. Try to split push lanes if you have the chance or call out for your team to kill Midboss for an even larger advantage. Don't forget the Urn though, as even in the Late game it provides a generous amount of souls and it remains very valuable.
Duration Extender is perfect for Yamato's Shadow Transformation while Mystic Reverb (applied to Power Slash) is a fantastic flat damage increase. Do NOT underestimate Healing Booster either as it counters some of the anti-healing enemies usually have in the late game.
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Situational Items
These items can be bought up to counter certain heroes as they work perfectly for specific scenarios.
- Decay is one of the best items in the game and the perfect counter to tanks and healing enemies as it deals damage based on the amount of HP the enemy has while also greatly lowering enemy healing. This works great vs heroes like Abrams, Viscous or Infernus and can be coupled with Healbane.
- Healbane - This is a great item choice against healing heavy heroes like Infernus or Abrams, helping you take them down.
- Shadow Weave — This is a fantastic choice as a luxury item in the end game when you have too many souls and a full build but you are still struggling against Vindicta and Grey Talon.
- Ethereal Shift — Great to avoid high damage skills like
Guided Owl. - 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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