Seven is Deadlock's harbinger of galvanized death and destruction. Mystery surrounds what exactly Seven did to earn the death penalty, but when the moment of his execution arrived, instead of being put down by his would-be executioners, Seven rose from the electric chair as a supernatural horror and slaughtered everyone in the room.
Within the arenas of Deadlock, Seven wields lighting to strike down foes and empower his weapons. His skills have a strong amount of AoE, and with the right builds, Seven is more than capable of melting multiple heroes at once with a unique mix of weapon and spirit damage. Seven's simple but powerful kit is what makes him a fun character to learn and perfect for new players to use. Building and playing Seven will require a more nuanced approach, but once players learn what makes this character tick, they'll be laughing and smiting entire teams before they know it.
10 Things You Need To Know About Valve's Deadlock
Want to know more about Valve's Deadlock? Here are essential points players need to know before jumping into the third-person shooter/MOBA hybrid.
Deadlock Seven Overview
|
Pros |
Cons |
|---|---|
|
+ Amazing AoE |
- No mobility options in the kit |
|
+ Main weapon has a large magazine and fast fire rate |
- Abilities suffer against opponents who use cover well |
|
+ Good skills for farming and PvP |
- Ult can be built against and easily stopped |
|
+ Strong Ult that plays well with Ivy |
- Unstoppable is pretty necessary to the build against good players |
|
+ Early game bully, late game monster |
- Spirit Builds can be the bane of Seven |
|
+ Aim is very rewarding with this character |
Seven is similar to a typical ADC in traditional MOBAs; your focus is to get as strong as possible, then transition to a point where you can carry the entire game on the back of your raw damage stats. His skillset is more than capable of enabling this, with Power Surge and Lightning Ball being wonderful tools for early farm while Static Charge punishes any enemy heroes for trying to pick an early fight with you.
However, Seven's Ult is the perfect example of both the strengths and weaknesses of this character. This ult gives Seven 55% bullet resistance and can deal a large amount of damage in a short amount of time. But during this time, Seven is standing still and if you break LoS of the ultimate, it will stop dealing damage to you. Going over Seven's entire skillset, most of his skills struggle with this same weakness of enemies breaking LoS with him. Static Charge has a fairly short range and requires you to see your target, and Power Surge only lasts 10s and has a long cooldown, leading to enemies using cover to stall the fight into an obnoxious threat. Lightning Ball and strong movement are the only ways Seven has to force players out of cover.
Seven Abilities Overview
|
Ability Name |
Description |
Tier Upgrades |
|---|---|---|
|
Lightning Ball |
Shoot at a ball of lightning that travels in a straight line. Does damage to all targets in a radius. Slows down when damaging enemies, and stops if it hits the world.
|
|
|
Static Charge |
Apply a charge to a target enemy hero. After a short duration, the static charge stuns and damages enemies within the radius.
|
|
|
Power Surge |
Power up your weapon with a shock effect, making your bullets proc shock damage on your target. This shock damage bounces to enemies near your target. Occurs once per burst shot.
|
|
|
Storm Cloud |
Channel an expanding storm cloud around you that damages all enemies within its radius. Enemies do not take damage when they are out of line-of-sight. You have increased Bullet Resist during channel.
|
|
Deadlock Seven Build Guide
There are also currently two popular ways to play Seven. The strongest way is to build him with weapon damage early-game and Spirit damage late in the game. This version of Seven focuses on Power Surge, and the item, Surge of Power, in mind. Ideally, Seven players using this build want to run around and shoot targets while Power Surge is activated and deal enough damage to delete groups of enemy heroes, clear farm, and steal neutral enemy camps from enemies.
The other way to play Seven is to turn him into a full Storm Cloud machine. Build him with high spirit damage, Diviner's Kevlar, and a Refresher, then walk into fights and use your ultimate. Alternatively, this build becomes far more fun to use in public games if you're teaming with an Ivy you can talk to. Ask your Ivy to lift you into the air then activate Storm Cloud while you both fly around the map like a mobile bug zapper.
Skill Leveling Order
|
Souls |
Upgrade |
|---|---|
|
0 |
Unlock Lightning Ball |
|
400 |
Unlock and upgrade Static Charge (T1) |
|
1.5k |
Unlock and upgrade Power Surge (T1) |
|
3k |
Unlock Storm Cloud |
|
3.5k |
Upgrade Power Surge (T2) |
|
8k |
Upgrade Power Surge (T3) |
|
9.7k |
Upgrade Lightning Static Charge (T2) |
|
18k |
Upgrade Lightning Static Charge (T3) |
|
20k |
Upgrade Storm Cloud (T1) |
|
22k |
Upgrade Lightning Ball (T1) |
|
26k |
Upgrade Lightning Ball (T2) |
|
36k |
Upgrade Lightning Ball (T3) |
Seven players will want to get Lightning Ball first. This skill lets them clear minion waves quickly and add poke damage if their opponents stay too close to their minions. After that, unlocking Static Charge allows Seven to mess with their laning opponents more often. If their opponents take too much poke damage or position poorly, Seven can slide into Static Charge range, stun their opponents, then burst their life bar down with repeated headshots or Lightning Ball if it's off cooldown. This will usually secure an early game kill, but if it doesn't, it'll at least force the opponent to limp out of the lane and give you an opportunity to farm in peace.
Power Surge is unlocked next so Seven can be a massive threat with ganks. During this time, Seven players will want to mix farming with putting more pressure on their opponents through Lightning Ball and Power Surge. When it's close to 10 minutes, or whenever it makes sense to, roaming as Seven will become a massive pain for the opposing team because of how much damage Seven can throw out, especially when his targets aren't pay any attention to him.
Finally, Lightning Cloud is the last unlock since it's mostly used to swing team fights in Seven's favor. At most, Seven will want T1 Storm Cloud before wanting T1 Lightning Ball just to avoid getting easily focused down in a team fight when Seven wants to Ult.
Item Progression
|
Game Phase |
Items |
Flex Items |
|---|---|---|
|
Early |
|
|
|
Mid |
|
|
|
Late |
|
|
|
End Game |
|
|
Deadlock: Vindicta Build Guide
Learn to decimate enemies from afar and snowball out of control with Vindicta in Deadlock using this build guide.
Early game, Seven can get away with Hollow Point Ward and Extra Regen. This should give him enough sustain and damage to plow through minions as fast as possible and bully enemies in the lane. If things are going wrong in the early game, buying Sprint Boots and Healing Rite will make you much tankier and faster in lane. Sell Healing Rite into a more useful item later, and upgrade Sprint Boots to Enduring Speed. You'll most likely sell Enduring Speed in the late/end game, but these items should get you out of the early game at least. Infuser and Extra Spirit are also great as early-game picks for more sustain and more ammo to use.
In the mid game, getting Active Reload will make it easier to be a constant laning threat by giving Seven less downtime between magazines, and it makes him a bigger threat under Power Surge. Suppressor, Mystic Slow, Soul Shredder Bullets, and Bullet Resist Shredder all exist to increase Seven's damage output. Spirit Lifesteal is important because it gives Seven more sustainment and heals damage taken from clearing neutral camps.
Around the 10-minute mark, Seven should have Active Reload and Tesla Bullets to expedite his farming. Ideally, Active Reload should be paired with Power Surge for the maximum burst damage. Once Tesla Bullets and Active Reload have been bought, you should be aiming to buy Fleetfoot, Enduring Speed, and Surge of Power enchanting Power Surge. Now, when you use Fleetfoot and Power Surge together, you'll have enough base speed to continually slide without the need to use Stamina, giving you near infinite ammo so long as Power Surge and Fleetfoot are in effect.
Late game is when Seven starts transitioning from weapon damage to spirit damage. Additional Spirit will increase the lethality of Power Surge by buffing its duration and shock damage. Improved Spirit should be bought afterward to further increase Power Surge's damage and make Seven even tankier. Healing Booster and Leech are there to make Seven more durable in fights and harder to kill during Storm Cloud. Intensifying Magazine is also a good idea here if you have the flex spot available and want to take down objectives faster along with tankier enemies.
Bullet Armor and Spirit Armor should be taken if the enemy team continually focuses Seven down. Spirit Armor gives Seven more opportunities to survive if Spirit skills are used to stop him (which is a fairly common occurrence if his opponents are building against him correctly). Bullet Armor is best used if the enemy team is continually shooting Seven through Storm Cloud.
Once you reach the end game and need that extra push of damage to finish the game, get Boundless Spirit and Unstoppable. Boundless Spirit is a massive buff to all of the stats Seven cares about while Unstoppable is used to make Seven CC immune while he's using Power Surge or Storm Cloud. It cannot be understated how important Unstoppable is to end- and late-game Seven since good players will focus Seven with every form of CC available to them. If you need even more power, Escalating Exposure, and Crippling Headshots are perfect items to buy for that extra bump to Seven's power.
How To Play Seven
For the most part, Seven wants to constantly farm so he can swing team fights in his favor. Early game, he'll play a little more reserved and poke with his gun and Lightning Ball. But once he unlocks his other skills and the movement speed bonuses start kicking in, Seven should be played as an incredibly aggressive, high-speed, damage dealer.
When the game starts, focus on securing last hits and denying the opponent their last hits. Lightning Ball and the generous magazine size of Seven's main weapon should allow players to do both comfortably as long as they manage their ammo well. Once you get Hollow Point Ward and Extra Regen, start saving up for your mid-game items like Active Reload. Additional level 1 items should be bought if Seven needs a little more sustain to keep farming lane or neutral camps. When Static Charge is unlocked, Seven can be a little more bold with his movements since a stun this early in the game can be a death sentence for Seven's opponents.
Once the build is online, start pushing lanes and moving through jungle camps more aggressively. Tesla Bullets will help you clear these camps much faster, and Seven's high movement speed at this point will allow him to run circles around the competition. Power Surge will be the star of the show at this point because of its movement speed buff, and the increase in shock damage.
Toward the end of the game, Seven players will want to start fighting alongside their team and using Storm Cloud to either win team fights or destroy objectives. While Seven has a terrifying amount of damage at his disposal, the lack of mobility options means he's still vulnerable to getting dived on by organized groups of enemy heroes. Sticking with a teammate who can take a few hits or initiate a fight gives Seven the opportunity to pick off fragile heroes before they can become a threat. All Seven has to do is find a victim, activate Static Charge then Power Surge and unload his gun into his victim's skull once they're stunned. If his team needs a little more help, using a Storm Cloud with support from his team can be a fast and decisive way to swing the fight back in Seven's favor.
Storm Cloud also has the additional benefit of zoning enemies off of objectives. It does a high amount of damage in a large area, and while enemy heroes can dodge it fairly easily by running behind cover, objectives will still be trapped in Seven's ultimate and take a large amount of damage.
In the mid and late game, be careful of enemies that can easily shut down Seven's ultimate. Knockdown, Bullet Resist Shredder, Wraith Ultimate, and a handful of other abilities will easily stop Storm Cloud if Seven doesn't build Unstoppable or if Seven uses his ultimate is an obvious manner. Position carefully, and use Storm Cloud when the enemy team can't afford to spend the resources to handle Seven.
WHERE TO PLAY
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Genre(s)
- Shooter, MOBA
